DURING the 1930s the demand for whisky abroad rose with the ending of prohibition in the United States so the Distillers Company Limited decided to rebuild Cambus Distillery, 23 years after the devastating fire, although its warehouse and maltings had been used for the Carsebridge Distillery in Alloa in the meantime.

Demolition began in January 1937 with the debris deposited on the foreshore of the River Forth with the aim of preventing flooding.

By May the only part of the original distillery remaining was the still house of 1886 which was incorporated into the new build. In all it is thought to have cost £275,000 and production began in December that year.

It was formally opened on 6th January 1938 and employed 200 men. It closed its doors at the beginning of World War II as men were called up, but managed to re-open in 1944.

In 1952 a rectification plant was installed to make grain spirit for gin and the carbon dioxide gas was recovered from the fermentation process a year later. Cambus was the first grain distillery in Scotland to re-use the solids left over from the distillation process.

Storage at the distillery was expanded to 160,000 butts when 18 new warehouses were constructed between 1955 and 1957

In 1982, the Strathmore Distillery was purchased which had closed two years previously and had been the Knox Brewery until 1957.

Strathmore had been converted to make ‘silent’ malt whisky then grain whisky in Coffey stills. Cambus House, once the home of the Moubrays, and a row of workers cottages were demolished to make way for the new dried soluble plant.

In 1993 the Cambus Distillery was closed by its then owner United Distillers.

Today Diageo owns the site as well as the Blackgrange Bond, the Cambus Cooperage and filling store. The bond dates back to 1960 and contains 60 warehouses which hold round 3.6 million casks of Scotch whisky. It is the largest bonded warehouse complex in Europe.

On 28th November 2011 Prince Edward opened the new £9million Cambus cooperage which employs over 100 people including coopers and operators as well as apprentices who produce around 250,000 casks a year.

Two hundred million litres of distilled spirit from distilleries all over Scotland are handled by the filling store each year and the spirit it placed in different cask types which matures taking on the flavours of the casks.

Distilled in 1975, a limited edition 52.7 per cent abv 40-year-old Cambus Single Grain Scotch Whisky was released in 2016 by Diageo