The site of the former Littlemill Distillery is located in the village of Bowling, West Dunbartonshire. Littlemill Distillery was constructed in 1772 and holds the title of Scotland’s first licenced whisky distiller having had a licence granted by the Government of King George the 3rd on the 2nd November 1773.
Under various owners, the site remained active as a whisky distiller until its closure in 1994. Shortly thereafter, in the Summer of 1995, the site was added to the Buildings at Risk register. In 1997 the remaining sections of the distillery were dismantled and later fell victim to a fire in 2004 leaving only the remains of original Category B listed Exciseman’s House standing on the site. In December 2022 permission was granted for the proposed demolition of the Exciseman’s House.
The site was first brought to the attention of the KLTR by an interested party resulting in extensive enquiries being carried out into the status of the site. These revealed that the last owning company had been dissolved in January 2022 and, as such, the property was classed as “ownerless” and fell to the Crown under Bona Vacantia.
The site is currently going through the Public Body trawl stage of the OPTS process and, if no interest is secured at this stage, will be open to applications from suitable interested parties.