Bay Distillery, Dunnet, Thurso KW14 8XD, UK
Rock Rose Gin Passionate Scottish spirits
Dunnet Bay Distillery
Our Story
ELIZABETH AND MARGARET
OUR COPPER STILLS
It is a tradition in distilling, a bit like it is in ship building, to give your still a lady’s name.
Elizabeth
It is a tradition in distilling, a bit like it is in ship building, to give your still a lady’s name. Our first still which has been operational since 2014 is called ‘Elizabeth’. She was named after a very famous lady who returned to Caithness year after year, that was HRH Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother. She loved Caithness and spent three weeks in August at the nearby Castle of Mey, returning for about ten days in October each year to escape from the pressures of a busy royal life. HRH Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother’s favourite drink was rumoured to be a gin and Dubonnet, so our first still was named in her honour.
Margaret
Our second still which joined ‘Elizabeth’ a few years later is called ‘Margaret’, not after The Queen Mother’s daughter but after a very special lady, who is close to both of our hearts. ‘Margaret’ is named after Claire’s mum Margaret Calder, who is the distillery’s Production Supervisor, in honour of her hard work, dedication, and the support she has given us both throughout our Rock Rose journey. Margaret has worked tirelessly alongside us, bringing organisation and control to our unstructured chaos! With a methodical and organised mind and a great sense of humour she has implemented structure and routine into our wee distillery, helping us as the business has grown and diversified.
Rock Rose Gin Passionate Scottish spirits
DUNNET BAY DISTILLERS
OUR PROCESS
Our precious botanicals are carefully harvested and stored before our bespoke copper pot stills, ‘Elizabeth’ and ‘Margaret’, made by John Dore & Co. Ltd, the oldest still maker in the world, work their magic. Our two ‘girls’ have been uniquely designed just to create our spirits using a traditional handmade copper head along with botanical vapour basket, ours is a small batch process of 500 litres.
Martin will cast his watchful eye over the whole process, to ensure the flavour, passion and quality people associate with Dunnet Bay Distillers spirits is there.
Each bottle is hand-filled, individually wax-sealed, batch numbered and hand-signed before it leaves the distillery. Great care is taken throughout the whole process to ensure that only the very best quality products will leave our wee distillery in Dunnet!
ROCK ROSE GIN
Flavourful and fresh, zesty yet berryful with a long smooth finish.
Rock Rose Gin gets its wonderful flavour from a carefully selected and put together creation of local and traditional botanicals. Each one meticulously chosen for their flavour properties to create the perfect taste.
After fifty five experiments by Martin & Claire the final recipe was chosen to give a wee taste of Caithness and the very first batch was distilled on the 17th August 2014.
41.5% Alc Vol. – 700ml
£36.00
ROCK ROSE GIN
TASTING NOTES
NOSE
A delicate bouquet of rose, mixed with deeper cardamom and a touch of citrus.
PALATE
Fruity berries merge with a floral nose to give a full-bodied, rounded gin. Bright notes ping as the juniper comes forward.
FINISH
The sharpness of the sea buckthorn emerges, but once again is rounded off by berries and a juniper heart. Smooth sherbet lemon notes create a lingering finish.
Rock Rose is one of the finest Gins I have had the privilege of tasting, easily challenging the more established marques. Definitely worthy of the awards and recognition it has already received. Thank you for the experience…
– KEITH BYROM –
ROCK ROSE GIN
AWARDS
ROCK ROSE GIN
BOTANICALS
SEA BUCKTHORN Sea buckthorn is a silvery leafed shrub that grows along the coastline and produces clusters of vibrant orange berry-like fruit, soft, juicy and rich in oils. The fruit is highly celebrated for its high vitamin C content, around fifteen times more than an orange! We, however, use the berries for their taste – gorgeously fruity yet crisp.
RHODIOLA ROSEA Rhodiola rosea is a plant that thrives in colder climes making it ideal for the fresh breezes of Caithness. We use the root of the plant which adds a delicate floral note to our gin. Over a thousand years ago, the Vikings would harvest wild exposed cliffs to gather Rhodiola rosea. This was thought to give them the extra strength to continue on their long arduous journeys.
JUNIPER BERRIES Juniper is the predominant botanical – otherwise it just wouldn’t be gin! We select our juniper from two different countries. Both junipers are subjected to a vapour infusion process and the Bulgarian juniper gives lemon sherbert notes, whilst the Italian juniper gives a real warmth and depth to the flavour of the gin.
ROCK ROSE GIN
PERFECT SERVE
- Pour 50ml Rock Rose Gin into one of our beautiful gin glasses
- Toast a sprig of rosemary to use a garnish.
- In one of our gorgeous gin glasses add 25ml Rock Rose Gin and around 75ml tonic.
- Garnish with a curl of orange to bring out the sweeter notes!
ROCK ROSE GIN REFILL POUCH
Our fabulous Rock Rose Gin in a handy pouch to refill your bottle.
Refill your collectable ceramic Rock Rose Gin bottle with one of our fully recyclable pouches. Then simply pop the pouch into a postbox with no stamp or envelope required and we will take care of the recycling!
We are proud to be the first gin available in fully recyclable pouches that can be returned to the distillery FREEPOST via standard Royal Mail.
41.5% Alc Vol. – 700ml
£33.00
CLAIRE
The Common Sense
Responsible for all the frilly ideas.
A lover of all things ‘gin’ with an honours degree in hospitality and tourism. A creative but practical approach to overseeing all fun sides of the distillery!
MR MACKINTOSH
The Distillery Apprentice
Responsible for clearing crumbs after tea break!
If he can escape the office, Mr Mackintosh likes to personally greet visitors who are on a guided distillery tour. You’ll recognise him as he wears a red bandana and will use his charming eyebrows on you! Mr Mackintosh is the star of our Family Pack, which guides children participating on our guided tours through the stories associated with the distillery.
MARTIN
The Brains
Responsible for the crazy ideas.
A chartered process engineer with a passion for gin and beer. Obsessed with improving all areas of performance, he is the mastermind behind all things technical and innovative.
AND OUR FABULOUS TEAM
We couldn’t do what we do without our fabulous team working alongside us!
Our Production Wizards
We have a fabulous team of Production Wizards – Carol, Fiona, and Maureen, who all work super hard to ensure every bottle that leaves Dunnet Bay Distillery is hand-filled, hand-waxed and signed to perfection. Claire’s Mum Margaret is our Production Supervisor, she manages the crazy crew of Production Wizards. She works so hard that our second still is named ‘Margaret’ in her honour.
Gardening Expert
Before we require the services of our Production Wizards, we need the expertise of our very clever gardener, Dr Hanna (PhD), who can be found growing many weird and wonderful things in the distillery garden and geodome – if you see her ask about the electric daisy’s she grows! Along with Martin, Kevin and Craig, Hanna is also a key member of our Distilling Team, developing new flavours, growing botanicals and creating our innovative range of liquid garnishes.
Guitars & Distilling
Distiller Kevin is also our Compliance Master. He is fully in charge of making sure we are doing everything as we should. When he is not distilling or completing paperwork Kevin will be on stage as Neon Waltz’s guitarist.
Our Youngest Distiller
Craig is our newest and youngest distiller having graduated in summer 2021 from Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh with a masters’ degree in Brewing and Distilling. Before leaving Caithness to study in Edinburgh, Craig worked for Dunnet Bay Distillers as a tour guide and events assistant. Craig recently distilled his first batch of Rock Rose Gin, and his Mum is now the proud owner of bottles 1 to 6 of this batch which bear Craig’s initials ‘CC’ – short for Craig Chambers.
Environmental and Sustainability Guru
Sarah who was previously in charge of our finances is now the distillery’s Environmental Manager and social conscience. Sarah is passionate about environmental sustainability and is working towards achieving Planet Mark certification for Dunnet Bay Distillery. Sarah is currently developing a long-term strategy to support decarbonisation, waste initiatives, and the circular economy and often sends the rest of the team e-mails headed ‘A Rubbish E-mail’!
Marathon Accounting
Jayne has the marathon task of managing the distillery’s finances, which is no mean feat since the business keeps on growing. However, accounting is not the only marathon that Jayne is involved in, as in her spare time she is a long-distance runner who recently completed the London Marathon.
A Warm Welcome
A very warm welcome is provided in our Visitor Centre by Shop Manager Libby who is the world’s best gift wrapper and window dresser and Tour and Events Co-ordinator Joanne, who is always keen to impart her incredible wealth of knowledge. Between the two of them they manage our distillery shop, tour and events programme – don’t forget to ask them what they get up to at Halloween!
Bringing The Spirits To You
Once our spirits have been distilled, hand-filled, hand-waxed, signed and packed by our Production Wizards, we rely on the lovely smiley and amiable John, who is based in the south of England to help spread the word about Dunnet Bay Distillers products at various events – if you see John please stop and have a chat and maybe enjoy a wee sample.
DUNNET BAY DISTILLERY
OUR BEGINNINGS
Our Rock Rose journey can be traced back as far as our university days where we would talk of one day returning to Caithness to set up our own business together. With academic qualifications in chemical and process engineering Martin decided to pursue a career running a process plant offshore in the oil and gas industry. Claire with her qualifications in hospitality and tourism, went to work in the tourism industry. However, working in the oil and gas industry meant that Martin was often working away from home, which when we started our family was something he no longer wanted to do.
Paving The Way
We were always interested in running our own distillery but prior to 2008 there was a Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) law that stated that a still with a capacity of at least 1,800 litres must be in use to be granted a distilling licence. This was simply too big for us to afford. We were living and working in France when we heard in 2009 that a two-year battle with HMRC over licensing had been won. This paved the way for us to follow suit.
All Systems Go
The victory encouraged us to move home to Caithness, build our own house and build the distillery, which we established in 2014. Once our first copper pot still ‘Elizabeth’ was installed, we perfected the recipe for Rock Rose Gin and aimed to make about 10,000 bottles in our first year of operation. We made and sold 9,000 bottles in our first quarter of distilling and our first batch sold out by pre-orders within forty-eight hours of release in August 2014.
Using Our Experience
Our previous careers helped us enormously when we came to set up our own business. Martin was used to working with big pieces of equipment which was an asset when we came to plan, install and operate the distilling and production equipment at Dunnet Bay Distillery.
Customer Focus
Claire’s background in hospitality, tourism and events mean that her skills are ideally suited to managing and developing the customer focussed side of the business – marketing, retail, tours, hospitality, tourism and events.
Roller Coaster
Running your own business is a bit like being on a roller coaster ride. You enjoy the ‘ups’ and just deal with the ‘downs’ knowing that there is a way to resolve whatever set-back you are currently experiencing and that things will eventually work themselves out.
Realising Our Dreams
Our aim with Dunnet Bay Distillery was to create jobs at home in Caithness for the two of us so we could live and work in the county of our birth and raise our family here. We however never dreamed that one day we would employ fourteen people and win 2019 Scottish Gin Distillery of the Year at the Scottish Gin Awards, plus being awarded Great Taste Awards for Rock Rose Gin, Navy Strength Gin and Holy Grass Vodka and see our gin distributed and enjoyed all around the world.
Our beautiful wee George was a huge part of our family life as well as our Dunnet Bay Distillery journey. He was involved from the very beginning when he sat beside us as we experimented in our garage. He kept an eye on the building progress, watched as we learned how to use the bottling and labelling equipment for the first time and grinned proudly when we came home with awards!
GEORGE
The Boss
2002 – 2016
After the school drop off he would come to work and once he had done his morning tour to say ‘hello’ to everyone he’d settle down to snore (loudly) in his basket. Sadly the time came when we had to say goodbye but his memory lives on in our gin and vodka and his lovely photo looks down on us as we distil.
VISIT US
DISTILLERY SHOP & VISITOR EXPERIENCES
VISITING OUR
WEE DISTILLERY
We are delighted to be able to welcome you to explore our distillery, discover our spirits and our fabulously shiny stills, Elizabeth and Margaret.
Join us on an Express Tour in the morning or enjoy a more leisurely Premium Tour in the afternoon. Or have fun at one of our fabulous Cocktail Workshops!
Dunnet Bay Distillery is situated on the iconic North Coast 500 route around the north of Scotland and the John O’ Groats to Lands’ End tourist route. We are located three miles from Dunnet Head, the most northerly point on mainland Britain.
DUNNET BAY DISTILLERY
BESPOKE EXPERIENCES
We can offer a wide range of bespoke and unique experiences including:
- Chocolate and Cocktail Making Workshops
- Distilling Courses
- Exclusive Venue Hire for Corporate Events, Private Celebration Parties and Small Weddings
- Private Tours
- Team Building Activities
The maximum number of people that can participate in our bespoke experiences depends on the activity.
Please contact Joanne to discuss your specific requirements.
