Go-ahead given for Stirling Gin distillery

Stirling Gin have announced that they had been given permission to convert a former blacksmiths building in Stirling into the city’s first gin distillery and visitor centre.

The historic building has previously been a church meeting hall, a radio repair shop and a blacksmiths.

Co-owner Cameron McCann said: “To get the final green-light from Stirling Council Planning Department that we can proceed with our plans for The Old Smiddy is just the best news possible to start the New Year with, no doubt about it.

“So I’d like to thank Stirling Council Planning Department for processing our application so efficiently and now we can look forward to 2018 and creating something really special in our home city that will also hopefully have a positive impact on the area.

“Everyone at Stirling Gin is committed to making sure we become an integral part of the business community and hopefully a force for good in all the other aspects of the community we want to get involved in and support”.

Owners of Stirling Gin, husband and wife June and Cameron McCann, have also enlisted the help of local historian Robin Hawthorn who has found that the earliest known reference to a building on the site appears to show that it was part of King James V’s stables.

Stirling Gin was founded in 2015, produced in a tiny copper pot still in the McCann’s kitchen.

The distillery is expected to be completed this summer and is expected to cost £150,000, bringing up to eight new jobs to the area.