Most people associate Scotch whisky with the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, but the city of Glasgow has provided more than its fair share of the national spirit. Some of the city’s distilleries are better known than others: Dundashill, Port Dundas, Adelphi… these names might at least ring a bell with experienced whisky drinkers. There are others, however, that even the most dedicated have likely missed…

The village of Finnieston was established in 1768 by John Orr, owner of Stobcross House. He named the settlement after his son’s tutor, the Reverend John Finnie.

The development of Glasgow’s shipbuilding industry brought industrialisation, but the eventual collapse that followed left the area in a sort of post-industrial limbo. That is, until the gentrification of recent years. Finnieston has now become quite the place to be, and in 2024, it was named in The Telegraph’s “15 Coolest Neighbourhoods” (whatever that means).

The area lies to the west of Glasgow’s city centre, on the north bank of the River Clyde and offers an enticing blend of restaurants, cocktail bars and traditional pubs. It’s also a fun destination for the whisky lover – The Ben Nevis, the Islay Inn, the National Whisky Festival at SWG3, and even the Clydeside Distillery are nearby.

Back in the 1820s, the area was also home to the Finnieston Brewery, but in 1824, in the wake of the Excise Act, owners Ebenezer and John Connal decided that whisky was the future and began to convert their brewery to a distillery.

Details of this distillery are thin on the ground, sadly, but it appears that the owners somewhat overreached themselves, and the whole project was very short-lived. The Scots Magazine of March 1826 features the names Ebenezer Connal and John Connal of Finnieston Distillery in a list of bankruptcies!

From the small amount of available evidence, it seems the Connals went BIG with their distillery plans…

12 fermenting tuns (washbacks) and 5 stills sounds like a fairly sizable enterprise. The Connals must have been pretty convinced that their plans had merit, which is quite understandable. Glasgow and Scotch whisky were booming at the time, and even though the exact location of the distillery is unknown (some sources place it at the current location of the SEC), it would have stood in proximity to the River Clyde and had good access to the global trade that came with it.

Sadly, a buyer for the site could not be found, and The Scots Times of Saturday 15 December 1832, featured another article on the subject…

It seems the distillery was stripped for parts and sold off, piece by piece – a sad end for an exciting project that never really got off the ground.

We may never know exactly what went wrong with the Connals’ Finnieston Distillery, but it seems likely that the men simply ran out of funds, especially given the scale of the thing. The story of Scotch whisky is littered with such distilleries that fell by the wayside, though few have fallen as quickly or as hard as Finnieston.

Scotland’s modern distillers must mature their spirit for at least three years before it can be considered Scotch whisky. Finnieston didn’t even last long enough to see that happen. In fact, it’s unclear whether it ever went into production at all.

The Finnieston Distillery may only equate to a footnote in the lengthy story of Glasgow’s whisky, but it’s an interesting one all the same.