Cameron Bridge is a village in the conurbation of

Levenmouth Levenmouth is a conurbation comprising a network of settlements on the north side of the Firth of Forth, in Fife on the east coast of Scotland. It consists of three principal coastal towns; Leven, Buckhaven, and Methil, and a number of villages ...

Fife Fife (, ; gd, Fìobha, ; sco, Fife) is a council area, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries with Perth and Kinross ...

, Scotland. It is near to the village of

Windygates Windygates is a small village and surrounding district in central Fife, Scotland. The district encompasses the following villages, farms and estates; Wellsgreen Farm, Little Lun Farm, Woodbank Farm, The Maw (a former mining community on the Stand ...

and west of the town of Leven. A distillery was established in the 19th century by the Haig family, which is now part of Diageo. The distillery produces

Scotch whisky Scotch whisky (; sco, Scots whisky/whiskie, whusk(e)y; often simply called whisky or Scotch) is malt whisky or grain whisky (or a blend of the two), made in Scotland. All Scotch whisky was originally made from malted barley. Commercial dist ...

History and locality

It is a settlement at a bridge over the River Leven, which replaced a ford there. When Leven was flooded it was the first upstream crossing. In 1870, an earlier bridge was replaced with a new one. The River Ore joins the Leven a little upstream of the village.

Future transport

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in Track (rail transport), tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the ...

could be located in Cameron Bridge in the future, which would also serve as at

Park and Ride A park and ride, also known as incentive parking or a commuter lot, is a parking lot with public transport connections that allows commuters and other people heading to city centres to leave their vehicles and transfer to a bus, rail system ...

site. Rail freight provisions could also be provided to serve the distillery. This is as part of the Levenmouth rail link. Cameron Bridge station remains geograph-3128128-by-Ben-Brooksbank

Cameron Bridge station remains geograph-3128128-by-Ben-Brooksbank

The Cameronbridge Grain Distillery

In 1824 the Haig distillery was opened. In 1830 it became the first distillery to produce

Grain whisky Grain whisky normally refers to any whisky made, at least in part, from grains other than malted barley. Frequently used grains include maize, wheat, and rye. Grain whiskies usually contain some malted barley to provide enzymes needed for mashin ...

using the

Column still A column still, also called a continuous still, patent still or Coffey still is a variety of still consisting of two columns. Column stills can produce rectified spirit (95% ABV). Description The first column (called the analyzer) in a column ...

method invented by Robert Stein. In 1877 John Haig & Co merged with five other whisky companies to form the

Distillers Company The Distillers Company Limited was a leading Scottish drinks and pharmaceutical company and, at one time, a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. It was taken over by Guinness & Co. (now part of Diageo) in 1986 in a transaction which was later f ...

, with John Haig & Co coming under DCL's full ownership in 1919. Cameron Bridge produced both grain and malt whisky using a combination of

pot still A pot still is a type of distillation apparatus or still used to distill liquors such as whisky or brandy. In modern (post-1850s) practice, they are not used to produce rectified spirit, because they do not separate congeners from ethanol a ...

s and

column still A column still, also called a continuous still, patent still or Coffey still is a variety of still consisting of two columns. Column stills can produce rectified spirit (95% ABV). Description The first column (called the analyzer) in a column ...

s until 1929, when it shifted exclusively to grain whisky production. For a period between 1941 and 1947, the distillery closed due to

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. The current Column still house was constructed during the 1960s, and two of its three stills are more than 30 years old. The third was transferred from Carsebridge distillery in

Alloa Alloa (Received Pronunciation ; educated Scottish pronunciation /ˈaloʊa/; gd, Alamhagh, possibly meaning "rock plain") is a town in Clackmannanshire in the Central Lowlands of Scotland. It is on the north bank of the Forth at the spot where ...

when it was closed by

United Distillers United Distillers was a Scottish company formed in 1987 from combining the businesses of Distillers Company and Arthur Bell & Sons, both owned by Guinness. The company owned six single malt Scotch brands, which were relaunched as the ''Classic ...

in 1983. Major renovations at Cameron Bridge occurred in 1989–92 as well as up to 2000 when the distillery produced up to of spirit annually. In 1989 Cameronbridge also changed from being solely a large-scale grain whisky distillery into a ‘dual-purpose’ site, when

' Grain Neutral Spirit operation was transferred to Fife from Wandsworth in London. GNS for white spirits and ‘sweetened products’ such as

Archers Archery is the sport, practice, or skill of using a bow to shoot arrows.Paterson ''Encyclopaedia of Archery'' p. 17 The word comes from the Latin ''arcus'', meaning bow. Historically, archery has been used for hunting and combat. In mo ...

, Pimm's,

Smirnoff Smirnoff (; ) is a brand of vodka owned and produced by the British company Diageo. The Smirnoff brand began with a vodka distillery founded in Moscow by Pyotr Arsenievich Smirnov (1831–1898). It is distributed in 130 countries. Smirnoff p ...

Tanqueray Tanqueray is an English brand of gin produced by Diageo plc. It originated in London. In 2016 it displaced Beefeater as the number one global seller. While it does not command a sizable market share in its native market, its largest market i ...

and

Gordon's Gin Gordon's is a brand of London dry gin first produced in 1769. The top markets for Gordon's are the United Kingdom, the United States and Greece. It is owned by the British spirits company Diageo. It is the world's best-selling London dry gin. G ...

were also produced alongside grain spirit used in the

Johnnie Walker Johnnie Walker is a brand of Scotch whisky now owned by Diageo that originated in the Scottish burgh of Kilmarnock in East Ayrshire. The brand was first established by grocer John Walker. It is the most widely distributed brand of blended Sco ...

, J&B, Bell's, Black & White,

Vat 69 Vat 69 is a blended Scotch whisky created by William Sanderson & Son Limited of South Queensferry, Scotland, now part of Diageo. History William Sanderson was born in Leith, Scotland January 27, 1839. He started an apprenticeship with wine ...

, Haig and White Horse blended whisky brands owned by Diageo but the GNS column was later converted to a whisky still but still remains capable of producing GNS. It is currently the largest of the remaining grain distilleries in Scotland and is owned by Diageo.Dorsey, Kristy (16 December 2017)
Diageo marks its 20th anniversary
Insider.co.uk

References

External links

Village website
{{authority control Levenmouth Villages in Fife Distilleries in Scotland