Ardgowan Distillery

Roland Grain, an Austrian entrepreneur, founded Ardgowan Distillery Company in 2017 and spent eight years developing the site at Bankfoot Farm on the Ardgowan Estate near Inverkip before whisky-making began. The distillery, led on site by distillery manager Laura Davies, filled its first cask on 20 June 2025, becoming the first new distillery to open in Inverclyde in more than a century; the area's previous distillery was destroyed during the Greenock Blitz. The building follows a Scandinavian longhouse design topped with a roof made from ninety-seven per cent recycled aluminium. A visitor centre opened later the same summer, run by Barbara Campbell, previously of Glen Ord distillery. Visitors can take a ninety-minute guided tour of the production areas and warehouse, finishing with a tasting of three expressions from the Clydebuilt range.