Memories of Rosebank distillery as it prepares to reopen to the public

Nancy Scott was just 17 when she started working at Rosebank as a clerkess on £5 a week in 1955. At the time the old swing bridge over the canal was still standing beside the distillery, and what is now a Beefeater restaurant was the No.6 Warehouse, full of maturing whisky. Nancy remembers how the yeast would come once a week by horse and cart from Aitken’s Brewery in Falkirk that closed in 1968 and now lies buried beneath Asda.

“I was the only female in the place at the time, and they treated me very well,” she says. “The customs officers were so nice, they’d come down for a coffee in the morning round the coal fire, and then back for afternoon tea.”

She left to start a family and then worked for the Abbey National Building Society until the distillery manager came in one day in 1970. Two weeks later he offered Nancy her old job back and she jumped at the chance. She stayed at Rosebank until it closed, seemingly for good, 21 years ago, and says: “It was a wonderful experience working at the distillery, it really was.”

Among recollections was getting “the shock of my life when the distillery cat had kittens in my desk,” and being invited aboard a mini submarine that had come up the canal. “It was so tiny and claustrophobic,” she recalls.

“We also once had visitors who came by helicopter and landed outside the distillery. I got a ride in it across the Forth and back. It was very exciting.”

She particularly enjoyed taking people round Rosebank and pouring them a dram after their tour in the manager’s office.

As for the new distillery – “It looks absolutely beautiful outside,” she says. “I’m glad they’re having a visitor centre – I’ll reapply for my job!”

On which note, owners Ian Macleod Distillers are about to begin recruitment for the visitor centre – check www.ianmacleod.com/careers – and social media in the coming weeks if interested.

Scott Jackson swam for the Falkirk Otters while at school which involved countless trips to the now demolished Falkirk baths. “I’ve got very vivid memories of passing Rosebank in the early morning and late at night, and seeing steam rising up from the worm tubs outside,” he says. “When I found out it was a distillery and they made whisky, I was fascinated by the fact that if it took so long to make – 10 or 12 years it said on the bottle, why were they making the stuff during the night? What was the rush?”

Hearing tales of the night shift from an uncle who worked there only added to his curiosity, and by the time he finally went round the closed distillery in the early 2000s, he had become an avid fan of old Rosebank whisky.

“It was just an amazing experience,” he says of his torchlit tour with the night watchman. “It felt like the place was full of history and the ghosts of yesteryear.”

“It seemed virtually impossible we’d ever see whisky being made there again because it wasn’t the done thing to resurrect distilleries at the time,” says Scott. “But there was always a chance given the core hardware was still there.”

Once the stills were stolen around Christmas 2008, he assumed, like everyone, there was “just no way back”. So, he was thrilled when he heard of Rosebank’s rebirth.

“As a local, I thought it’s brilliant for Falkirk – it will bring jobs and a bit more industry,” he says. “And as a whisky guy, it’s fantastic news for bringing Rosebank back to life.”

Like Nancy Scott, he cannot wait to see round it.

If you have any Rosebank memories you would like to share, please get in touch at [email protected]