St Magdelene
A Silent Lowland Still
Also known as Linlithgow Distillery, after the West Lothian town in which it was founded, St Magdalene was a single malt distillery originally founded in 1765 by one Sebastian Henderson. From the 1790s to the early 1800s it was operated as Linlithgow by brewer Adam Dawson – one of the first recorded licensed Scotch whisky distillers.
St Magdalene was in continuous operation for more than 200 year before it was mothballed in 1983. Its Lowland single malts are now of serious interest to collectors as well as committed drammers – largely as a result of the impressive Diageo Rare Malt bottlings released in the 1990s. A 23-year-old 1970 vintage and a 19-year-old 1979 vintage St Magdalene single malt were released. In addition, in 2004 a 30-year-old malt was released under the Linlithgow label as part of Diageo’s annual Special Releases. A very small number of sought-after independent bottlings are also in circulation.
