A Christmas Message from The Cabrach Trust

This year has been exciting and busy and formative for The Cabrach Trust. 

We’ve navigated our first year of (legal) whisky making in The Cabrach following a hiatus of 170 years. We launched The Cabrach’s Local Place Plan earlier in the year, following an in depth, cross-community exercise. We choreographed The Cabrach Tapestry project which captured people’s hearts and minds from across the North East of Scotland, with over a thousand stitchers getting involved. We continued to deliver and develop our signature events including The Cabrach Picnic & Games, Burns Supper, and rural skills and wellbeing programme. On the farm we had a bumper crop of home barley and we welcomed hundreds of visitors onto the trails. Events like North East Open Studios (NEOS) returned and we trialled new events including our ‘Inspired By The Cabrach’ exhibition and Illicit Music Nights, both hosted in the distillery’s heritage steading. And without any doubt, it has been a privilege welcoming so many visitors from near and far to Inverharroch: our community, international guests, strategic stakeholders, and the European Rural Parliament, to name but a few. 

Looking forward, we have also focused time and energy on the projects which will become a major focus in the New Year. The development of our Learning in Nature and Community Hub will progress through capital fundraising in 2026, whilst Phase 2 of The Cabrach Distillery & Heritage Centre project will move from design to planning submission. In addition, the next phase of our “pathways and planting” initiative will be launched in the Spring, introducing a further seven hectares of native broadleaf tree planting to our nature recovery endeavours at Inverharroch. We’ll also introduce our first refurbished home, ready for its new life and purpose as part of our work.  

All the whilst, we’ve welcomed new members to The Cabrach Trust and new Trustees onto the Board, most recently Grant Moir and Marianne Sheed. Our team – across both Trust and Distillery – has also grown this year with Lorraine McBain, John Stephen, Martin Sheed, Ian Duncan, and Lyndsey Gray all joining Sam Dowdall, Euan Christie, and Craig Buchan. 

It is not in our nature to rest on our laurels; there is so much more to be wrapping our arms around as we look ahead to January and beyond, but we are looking forward to a moments rest this Christmas. As always, this time of year provides a pause for thought and reflection, whereby we can’t thank you all enough for your sustained support! 

On behalf of everyone at The Cabrach Trust, wishing you a lovely Christmas.  

Season’s Greetings, 

Jonathan  Christie

Cheif Executive – The Cabrach Trust