I went to see how Anglo Saxon history and links to the local area combine to create a great whisky at Northumberland distillery

When people think about whisky, chances are they are imaging a remote Scottish island with mountains and lochs and a distillery sitting right in the middle.

It’s a drink which conjures up romantic notions of windswept moors with one road in and one road out, of stags surveying the scene from a hill top and of taverns in the back of beyond, lit by candlelight and with a hearty dram to protect against the cold.

While Scotland produces more than 700 million litres of whisky each year and the whisky industry in Scotland generates a significant amount of revenue and jobs, the art of making whisky has been gathering steam in England, with 55 active distilleries across the country.

One place making a name for itself for the quality of its product, as well as celebrating the heritage of the area it’s in, is Ad Gefrin distillery in Wooler in Northumberland, based just 14 miles from the border with Scotland and in an area full of Anglo Saxon history.

As I was preparing for a holiday driving around Scotland, I was contacted by Ad Gefrin as part of World Whisky Month as they were keen to welcome more visitors and get more eyes on their distillery and museum and, additionally, bring more eyes on a somewhat remote part of Northumberland.

I was able to sample the whisky before my trip, which is an excellent tipple, smoky and full of caramel flavour, and decided to make the visit at the end of my holiday before heading to see friends in Newcastle and Sunderland. Basically, it was a good way to break up the journey and learn about an area I don’t know a lot about.

Arriving in Wooler, which is a pleasant village on the edge of the Northumberland National Park, near the Cheviot Hills, you get an instant feeling of the history of the area, being part of the ancient kingdom of Northumbria and near to Yeavering Bell, a large Iron Age fort which was a stronghold of the Votadini.

The distillery itself is easy to find, sitting on the A697 between Coldstream on the Scottish border and Morpeth and with a design that represents an Anglo-Saxon hall, with crossbeams and striking white paint.

The name Ad Gefrin means “by the hill of goats” and comes from the location of the 7th century Anglo Saxon royal palace at Yeavering, so the history of the area can be seen right from the moment you enter the main hall.

That, in itself, is a sensory experience as you see a topological map of the area on the floor which helps to explain the layout of hills and Cheviot water that flows into the distillery, as well as help you learn about the sheer scale of the area in terms of mountains and the relative remoteness of where Wooler is.

If you make a visit to Ad Gefrin, you’ve got plenty of options for how to fill your time there, starting with the Anglo-Saxon museum experience which costs £10 for adults, £5 for children aged eight to 17, and free to under eights and Corenkyn and Corengyst members (more on that later).

For those wanting to know about the process and try a nip of the good stuff, the full package of a museum experience, distillery tour and tasting session is £25 for adults and £12.50 for children aged eight to 17 which, I think, is good value for what you get.

Having taken in the enormity of the entrance hall, from the large mapped floor and the cylindrical, wood panelled hall with roof and balcony, I was met by Ad Gefrin director of visitor experience Chris Ferguson to take a tour of the distillery and learn more about the process.

The first part took me through the visitor experience and museum, which laid out the full history of the area and the influences of the Anglo-Saxon people on the distillery.

It’s a full sensory experience, with large wall displays, plenty of exhibits including jewellery and pots from the period, as well as videos of people acting out living in the “dark ages” of the 6^th to 10^th centuries.

I’ll be honest, it’s worth a good few hours on its own as you start to get more of an understanding about the history of area and what the Anglo Saxon people did to build this nation, with the commentary from Chris really helping me to understand how the distillery paid tribute to the heritage of that time.

Of course, while I could have looked at staffs and pots and jewellery and videos of actors representing the people of Northumbria all day, my focus was on learning about the liquid part of the place, the process for distilling and making the whisky which gave it its good name.

Pass through a door and walk over a metal bridge and you leave the Anglo Saxon era and find yourself in a modern, warm and busy distillery with a strong smell which wakes you up in a hurry.

The location for the distillery is a pretty good one, with water from the Cheviot hills running underneath and brought up from a borehole, while Chris explained that the malting barley was grown by farmers less than 25 miles down the road, with Simpson’s Malt, the internationally renowned fifth generation malt company, malting the barley for Ad Gefrin.

This, in return, gives Ad Gefrin a very small carbon footprint, with Simpson’s Malt being based just 10 miles from Berwick-upon-Tweed, and leaves the distillery with an unpeated malt which is used for 10 months of the year and then, for the last month, a peated malt is used.

I was able to follow it along the process into the hopper, then into the grist mill, then milled into what resembles a porridge oat, although I wouldn’t recommend eating it.

Just walking around, you realise how much work goes into getting the malt just right, boiling it to the right temperature and then running it through the stills to ensure all the right care has been taken to make the whisky just right.

After the whisky is brewed and distilled, that’s not the end of the process as it has to be kept in a secure place to mature as, funnily enough, 15-minute old whisky is not that nice, so Chris took me to the storage area and Corenkyn building.

I said I’d explain what Corenkyn was earlier on, so here goes: The word is of Anglo Saxon origin and means “Chosen Family”, who are founder members of the distillery from when it opened in 2022 and paid £2,022 to become lifetime members, of which there is a maximum of 2,022.

As part of the membership, they get free tours for life, 20 per cent off everything, an exclusive bottle of the Corenkyn Blend and priority access to any spirit releases.

They are also the only people who can buy a cast of whisky from Ad Gefrin, which are either Ex Bourbon casts which hold 200 litres and cost £4,800 or Oloroso Sherry casks which hold 250 litres and cost £6,500, which is quite an investment.

Their name is also on a plaque in the building in perpetuity for helping to get Ad Gefrin off the ground and making whisky, while the Corengyst (Chosen Guest) membership is an annual membership which gives free entry, 10 per cent discounts and free tastings, although you can’t buy a cask through that scheme.

While we’re on the subject of the casks, walk through the hall and past the very descriptive wall display of the distilling process (worth 10 minutes on its own), and you’re met with the glorious sight of the dozens of casks full of the fruits of the labour of the team at Ad Gefrin.

At present, the casks are holding the latest batch of the Tácnbora, an intriguing blend of Scottish and Irish whiskies, paying homage to the diverse people that once comprised the Anglo Saxons of Northumbria (Scottish, Irish, English, and Scandinavian), as well as Ad Gefrin’s Single Malt Whisky, which is expected for release in 2027.

It’s an intoxicating sight, lots of casks full of wonderful whisky, but you can only stare at wooden casks for so long before you get thirsty and this is where the final part of the tour comes in as you’re led into a well-lit room with seats, glasses spaced out and a full bottle of Tácnbora, as well as Ad Gefrin’s Thirlings Dry Gin, a gin crafted with meticulous care using timeless flavours inspired by Northumberland, heather and pine from the Cheviot hills, elderberry and dill from the hedgerows, and Irish moss and sea buckthorn from the coast.

You’re able to sit and sample each of the drinks made by Ad Gefrin, including the Flýte Irish Cream liquor, and get a full lesson in the intricacies that go into making them and the different flavours you’ll experience trying them.

I actually bought a bottle of the gin to take home, having recently discovered a liking of the fair juniper berry, and have enjoyed the samples they gave me to take home.

After all that, and if you need to take the weight off your feet, there’s the bistro and café with a great selection of teas and coffees, cakes, sweet treats and hot food and much more, all of which makes this a place worth visiting. 

It’s a gem of a place in the middle of beautiful and rugged countryside and has the history of a whole area distilled into its wonderful products.

Take a ride, find a place to stay the night and get a wee dram down while you’re there.

For more information about the distillery and the different tours on offer, go to the Ad Gefrin website.