Caol Ila is pronounced cull eela and is Gaelic for the “Sound of Islay”. The distillery was founded in 1846 by Hector Henderson and is beautifully situated overlooking the sound between Islay and Jura. In spite of many changes in ownership, the distillery has been in production almost constantly since it was founded with the exception of 1930 and 1937 as well as a period during WW2.

In order to meet an increased demand from the blended industry, the distillery was completely remodelled between 1972 and 1974. All buildings were torn down and rebuilt except for the warehouses which were spared. The modernization also meant that Caol Ila started to buy their malt from the centralised maltings at Port Ellen.

In the mid 1980s the distillery introduced a new product for the blended industry –the completely unpeated Caol Ila Highland. Until a few years ago Caol Ila only had one official bottling, but they have expanded their product range and now offer bottlings of for example Caol Ila 12 years, 18 years and a Cask Strength bottling.

Contact information
Caol Ila Distillery
Port Askaig, Islay,
Argyll PA46 7RL
Scotland

Phone: +44 (0) 1496-302760
Fax: +44 (0) 1496-302763

Caol Ila has no official website

Visiting
Visitors are welcome after advance booking during April-October, Monday-Thursday. Admission is £4 and is refundable on purchase in the gift shop.

Whisky
The Whisky exchange have a good range of Caol Ila whiskies.
Click here for Caol Ila whisky >>

Map

Image produced from the Ordnance Survey Get-a-map service.
Image reproduced with kind permission of Ordnance Survey and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland.