Our Makers - The Dalmore Distillery Manager, Mark

Our Makers takes a deeper look at the world of The Dalmore, shining a light on the people whose passion, knowledge and experience shape every aspect of our Highland Single Malt and the experiences that surround it.

For this edition, we sat down with Mark Lancaster, Distillery Manager at The Dalmore, to discuss his role and his experience of the recent reimagining project. Responsible for day-to-day operations of the distillery site, Mark oversees the production of our signature spirit while ensuring his team are able to work safely and to the highest standards.

How did you come to work at The Dalmore?

Back in 2007, I was working in England as a process scientist for Tate & Lyle when I spotted an ad in the New Scientist for a microbiologist at Whyte & Mackay, The Dalmore’s parent company.

I applied, got the job, and my family and I relocated to Scotland, where I joined the quality team in the laboratory at the Invergordon distillery. At the time, my wife and I saw it as a temporary move - a chance to find out whether we could live away from our families, as our long-term plan had been to emigrate to New Zealand.

However, I quickly fell in love with the job and the industry. A few years later, I moved into the production side, first becoming Assistant Production Manager and eventually Distillery Manager. Then, following organisational changes in 2020, I took on responsibility for The Dalmore distillery as well, splitting my time between the two sites almost daily.

When The Dalmore distillery reimagining project began in 2022, I was asked to join The Dalmore full time, and I’ve been here ever since.

Which is your favourite expression of The Dalmore?

Generally, when I’m asked about my favourite expression, I usually say I don’t really have one - I have a favourite memory of one. For me, it’s more about what I was doing at the time, because whisky is meant to be shared - it’s meant for moments.

When I joined Whyte & Mackay, as a relatively fresh-faced 28-year-old, Senior Malt Chemist Charlie Wood called me over on my very first day and we started talking about whisky. As we chatted, he reached into his desk and produced a small sample of The Dalmore Aged 50 Years.

It was my first taste of The Dalmore, and from that moment I became a true fan. To this day, it remains one of the expressions closest to me - not only for its remarkable character, but because it’s tied to an early memory that will stay with me forever.

That said, my go-to expression depends on the time of year. At Christmas, I’d go for The Dalmore Port Wood Reserve, because it just ‘says’ Christmas to me with its rich berry flavours. However, if I had to choose just one, it would be King Alexander III. It’s so versatile - equally enjoyable as a quiet dram or shared between friends, discovering different aromas and flavours from it.

And your favourite serve?

My personal preference when it comes to whisky is neat, but sometimes I’ll have it with a splash of water just to open up the flavours. However, I’ve been able to experience the cocktails that have been developed as part of The Dalmore Distillery Experience and they're all exceptional.

My personal favourite is The Rob Roy, made with The Dalmore Cigar Malt Reserve - it’s delicious. However, if someone offers me an Old Fashioned, I’m not going to say no.

Which is your favourite room in the reimagined distillery?

The new Stillhouse is magnificent - you just get this ‘wow’ moment when you’re in there. As a distillery manager, just the sound of the stills and the heat from them as the spirit is running through makes it a very special room for me.

However, my favourite is The Mash & Tun Room, with its huge wooden washbacks. It was incredible to see them being built. They began life as five-metre-long planks of Canadian pine, each around three inches thick. They were assembled in place, then steel hoops were driven down around them, creating enough pressure to form a watertight seal. There’s no glue, no screws or nails or anything like that.

I love the fact that our washbacks are wood rather than stainless steel. The wood encourages a unique microflora that plays an important part in developing the flavour of our spirit. There’s a romance to that which I think speaks to the microbiologist in me.

What's been the most meaningful moment for you through the distillery reimagining project?

Without a doubt, it was when I collected the spirit, after we ran the stills for the first time.

During distillation, there's a point when you manually make the cut from the foreshots - the spirit with lighter, volatile compounds - to the middle cut, which is the spirit we collect for maturation. It's a simple action, turning a valve to divert the flow, but it's one of the most important decisions in the process. I knew I wanted to be the person to make that first cut - it was the one thing I really wanted to do.

The moment the spirit began to flow, it felt incredibly significant. After years of planning, building and overcoming countless challenges, we were finally producing spirit again. No matter what happens in another 150 years’ time, the first spirit that was collected in the newly reimagined distillery was from the cut I made that day. So, that was a very meaningful moment.

As a custodian of the distillery’s future, how would you describe your responsibility?

With the reimagining project, it would have been easier and cheaper to demolish some of the buildings and start again, but we chose to utilise them. By preserving features such as the pagoda roof in The Kiln Room and transforming the old malt barns into the Mash & Tun Room, we've honoured The Dalmore's heritage while preserving the integrity of the whisky and creating a distillery fit for the future.

Recently, I was sent a copy of an interview with Hector ‘Hac’ Mackenzie, The Dalmore’s former owner, from The Brewer’s Digest in 1958. In it, he talked about the recent electrification of the distillery and the introduction of automatic stoking machines, which replaced the physically demanding task of feeding coal into the boiler. His view was that technology should remove repetitive jobs so that distillery operators could focus on making exceptional whisky.

It struck me that, almost 70 years later, we're doing the same thing as they were doing then. The technology has moved on, but the philosophy remains the same. We’ve used modern systems to support the whisky-making process, not to change it.

What role do your team play in preserving The Dalmore’s spirit as the distillery evolves?

There is a wealth of experience and knowledge within our team of distillery operators, built over many decades. We have a distillery operator who has worked here for 35 years. He learned his trade from someone who had also spent 35 years working here, who in turn learned from someone who'd been here for 35 years before that.

We have this unbroken chain of process knowledge that stretches all the way back to the 1920s. It’s amazing how you can go back through generations of people who have dedicated their working lives to a particular job. We keep that going - we keep hold of the knowledge and experience, while utilising the best available technology around it.

How does that feel, knowing that you’re contributing to the next century of whisky making at The Dalmore?

The effect of this project will last for generations. The Dalmore distillery will still be here, and people will still be running it long after I'm gone. It's quite a nice feeling to know that you’ll be leaving something of yourself behind - even if it’s just a ‘thumbprint in the plasterwork’, so to speak.

We have books in our Archive Room detailing the names of people who worked here, along with managers who signed dockets, going right back to the 1800s. It’s a special feeling that my name will be there somewhere in the future. It might not be much - it might only be a footnote, but it will be there in the history of this great distillery.

Were there any practical challenges to running a distillery during a redevelopment?

One of the most intriguing aspects for me was balancing the reality of running a working distillery with the creative vision for the guest experience. We worked closely with architects, interior designers and lighting specialists, and there were times when our worlds were naturally at odds.

A good example was the lighting in the Stillhouse. The original design featured floor-mounted uplights to showcase the stills, but they were positioned directly in walkways used by the production team. From a design perspective they looked fantastic, but from an operational and safety perspective they simply wouldn't have been safe. We had to rethink the layout to achieve the same visual impact without compromising safety.

It was essential that we found a balance between creating a beautiful experience for our guests and the reality of maintaining a safe, functional distillery, and I think we've achieved both.

How do you define success for this new era of the distillery?

Obviously, success as a distillery is producing The Dalmore spirit to the character that we need, but success for me personally is seeing that the team are happy with what they're producing, how they're working and the environment they're working in. Our staff are now in a more comfortable place with a better working environment, and that’s been a huge success.

We’ve had this massive project with an enormous amount of work involving hundreds of people, and nobody was hurt. We have maintained an excellent health and safety record for this entire project, and for me, that is perhaps the biggest success of all.

Which part of The Dalmore Experience will have the greatest impact on guests, in your view?

I think many guests will be struck by our Stillhouse - that moment when they see it for the first time. We’ve had several guests tell us how moved they were by it, and I think that’s something many people will take away because it’s such an impactful space.

Above all, we want our guests to leave with a deeper understanding of The Dalmore - what we do differently, why we do it, and what makes the character of the spirit so unique.

I also hope our guests will leave us with a sense of what an amazing place this is - not only the distillery, but the whole site here on the Cromarty Firth. We’re guilty sometimes of taking it for granted, but when we take our ‘blinkers’ off and see it through the eyes of visitors from around the world, it reminds us just how special a place this really is.

Our Makers series continues soon, as we explore more of the people, places and moments that shape the world of The Dalmore. The first edition of Our Makers, with Brand Home Hosts Erin and Rob, can be found within the Our World section of The Dalmore website.

If you would like to book The Dalmore Experience, reservations are now open for 2027, with a limited number of visits remaining for 2026. We warmly encourage early booking to secure a preferred date. Please visit Distillery Experiences to book.