Martin and Claire Murray launched Dunnet Bay Distillery in 2014.

Image courtesy of Scottish Licensed Trade News, see the source here.

Home of Rock Rose Gin and Vodka, Claire and Martin started Dunnet Bay Distillery with the aim to create jobs in their home in Caithness, Scotland. From humble hopes looking to live and work in the county of their birth, they never dreamed that one day they would employ 14 people and go on to win the 2019 Scottish Gin Distillery of the Year at the Scottish Gin Awards and see their gin distributed and enjoyed all around the world.

Their previous careers helped greatly when we came to setting up Dunnet Bay Distillery, Martin was used to working with large scale oil and gas equipment—which was an asset when it came to planning, installation and operation of the distilling and production equipment to make Rock Rose spirits,

Claire’s background in hospitality, tourism and events brought skills ideally suited to develop and manage customer-enjoyment side of the business—marketing, retail, tours, hospitality, tourism and events.

The precious botanicals for Rock Rose are carefully harvested and stored before the bespoke copper pot stills, ‘Elizabeth’ and ‘Margaret’, work their magic. These two ‘girls’ have been uniquely designed to create the ideal spirits, utilising a traditional handmade copper head along with botanical vapour basket, with a small batch process of only 500 litres.

Martin will cast his watchful eye over the whole process, to ensure it contains the flavour, passion and quality associated with Dunnet Bay Distillers.

Each bottle is hand-filled, individually wax-sealed, batch numbered and hand-signed before it leaves the distillery. Great care is taken throughout the whole process to ensure that only the very best quality products will leave the cherished, wee distillery in Dunnet, Scotland.