Tomatin

Tomatin (Scottish Gaelic: Tom Aitinn) is a small village on the River Findhorn in Strathdearn in the Scottish Highlands about 16 miles (26 km) south of the city of Inverness. The name derives from the Scottish Gaelic name Tom Aitinn (hill of juniper). The river Findhorn rises at Coignafearn, a large game estate near Tomatin, and then passes through Tomatin village itself. The village has a shop, school and village hall and is most known for its whisky distillery.

At the last census in 2001 Tomatin had a population of 183. Many of the inhabitants are employed by local farms and estates, while others commute to Inverness and surrounding towns.

Tomatin has been bypassed by A9 since 1976

As part of the Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey constituency it is represented in the UK Parliament by Danny Alexander MP (Liberal Democrat); in the Scottish Parliament it is in the constituency of Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, represented by Fergus Ewing MSP (Scottish National Party).

The Tomatin Distillery

Tomatin distillery

Coordinates: 57°20′20″N 4°0′33″W / 57.33889°N 4.00917°W / 57.33889; -4.00917

Tomatin distillery is a single malt Scotch whisky distillery in the village of Tomatin. Its whisky is of the Highland region.

Although it is thought that whisky has been distilled on the site since the 16th century, when cattle drivers would buy from a local still, the distillery was not established until 1897, under the name of Tomatin Spey Distillery Co Ltd. The company went bankrupt in 1906, and reopened under new ownership in 1909. After the liquidation of its owners in 1986, it was taken over by Japanese conglomerate Takara Shuzo and was renamed Tomatin Distillery Co Ltd.

The distillery operated with only two stills until 1958. Starting at that time, they began to add stills to increase production capacity, eventually reaching production of twelve million litres of whisky per year during the 1970s. Although in 1987 Tomatin was referred to as the largest malt distillery in Scotland, stills have been dismantled since the mid-1980s, bringing their total capacity to just over five million litres, though as of 2007, they were only producing 2.5 million litres.