For over 200 years, the streets below Stirling Castle have seen distilleries rise, fall and fall silent. Whisky first flowed here in 1816; by 1852 the stills were quiet, and the story paused.

In 1888 The Old Smiddy was built on the castle rock. It was a temperance hall, a school, a blacksmith’s workshop — almost everything except a distillery.

That changed when June and Cameron McCann marked their 26th wedding anniversary not with a gift, but by distilling the first bottle of Stirling Gin in a tiny still called Jinty.

Today, The Old Smiddy is Stirling’s first legal distillery, crafting gin and whisky by hand in the shadow of the castle. How we got from that first experimental batch to the city’s first new whisky spirit since 1852 is a longer story and it’s still unfolding.