Rosebank Single Malt Scotch Whisky

The Rosebank distillery is situated in Camelon on the banks of the Forth and Clyde canal between Edinburgh and Glasgow. Its name originated after the roses which grew along the banks of the canal. In October 2017 Ian MacLeod Distillers Ltd purchased the site from Scottish Canals and the trademarks from Diageo with the intention of reopening the site. Records exists, showing that a distillery existed in Falkirk as early as 1798. Rosebank was once considered one of the premier lowland whiskies but then United Distillers mothballed the distillery in 1993. The reason given for the mothballing was that its effluent treatment would have required a £2m upgrade in order to comply with European standards of the time, this did not make it commercially viable. At the time of its closure, it still retained many historical features in the production of the whisky.

In 2002, the distillery buildings and contents were sold to British Waterways by Diageo, and the maltings were demolished to make way for a housing development. In 2008 plans were started to open a new distillery in Falkirk with original Rosebank equipment. However, over Christmas and New Year 2008/2009, the original Rosebank stills (along with other equipment) were stolen by metal thieves and were not recovered. Plans for the new distillery continued to develop gaining Scottish Government approval, the new building being near the Laurieston site of the original Rosebank distillery. Despite suggestion that the new whisky may be produced under the Rosebank name, Diageo - who owned the Rosebank trademark at the time and continued to release limited bottles of original Rosebank whisky - denied this.

In October 2017, Ian Macleod Distillers announced that they had acquired the Rosebank Whisky trademark from Diageo and the site from Scottish Canals in order to re-establish Rosebank Whisky by building a new distillery and re-commencing production in the old style.

Rosebank distillery hopes to reopen in autumn 2020 as plans to resurrect the Lowland single malt await council approval.