Have your poetry immortalised in new Lagg Distillery

Isle of Arran Distillers has teamed up with Scottish Field to find the official poem for their new Lagg Distillery.

The winning entry will take pride of place onsite at the new distillery that is due to open in the spring of 2019.

Budding writers have been tasked to produce a poem that beautifully captures the Isle of Arran’s history, landscape or, quite simply, it’s spirit – whisky or otherwise. The closing date for entries is Friday 14 December and the winner and two runners up will be announced on Burns Night, Friday 25 January 2019.

As well as having their poem immortalised at the Lagg Distillery, the winning entry will be exclusively published in Scottish Field magazine, the official media partner for the competition.

The winning poet will also be invited to the official opening of the new Lagg Distillery Visitor Centre in Spring of next year. The two runners-up will receive an exclusive Lagg Distillery goodie bag.

The Isle of Arran Distillery have assembled an expert judging panel that will mull over each entry. Judges include Hamish Whyte, honorary research fellow in the Department of Scottish Literature at Glasgow University, Jim Carruth, Poet Laureate of Glasgow since 2014, Rachel McCormack, a renowned chef and author of Chasing the Dram, Kenny Smith, web editor at Scottish Field, Graham Omand, the Lagg Distillery manager, and Faye Waterlow, the Lagg visitor centre manager.

Euan Mitchell, managing director of the Isle of Arran Distillers, said: ‘We’re thrilled to launch this competition to help celebrate the opening of our new distillery. To us, whisky is liquid poetry and we want to include this spirit at Lagg.

An artist’s impression of the finished Lagg Distillery on the Isle of Arran

‘I and the judges are very excited to read the work that is inspired by the island and the “Arran Waters”. Who knows, we might find the next Makar! It’s also very fitting to coincide the announcement of the winning poem with Burns Night. At the Isle of Arran Distillers, we are proud to be the only whisky-maker to have a dram that’s officially endorsed by The World Robert Burns Federation.’

All entries can be submitted to Scottish Field magazine by email to ksmith@scottishfield.co.uk with the subject ‘Isle of Arran Distillers – Poetry Competition’.  Entrants will also need to include in their name, contact information and date of birth as this competition is only open to those over the age of 18. All entries must be original work and not have been published anywhere else before.

Poems can also be submitted by post using the following address:  Isle of Arran Distillers – Poetry Competition, Scottish Field, 496 Ferry Road, Edinburgh, EH5 2DL. Please be sure to also include within your entry letter your name, your contact information and your date of birth.

Scottish Field is part of Wyvex Media Limited. By entering this competition, you agree to Wyvex Media (or the third party company above) contacting you if your are a winner or contacting you about their products and services. If you do not wish to be contacted, you should not enter this/these competitions. Your information will be kept for a period of three months after the competition closes, after which it will be destroyed, unless you agree an extension to be contacted further with Wyvex Media or the third party company.

The most recent milestone for the Lagg Distillery Visitor Centre is the completion of the steelworks. With the structure now in place, the Distillery has begun to take on its distinctive shape, overlooking the south coast of Arran and the Firth of Clyde. The new distillery has been positioned next to fields of barley that provide a portion of the malt currently used in distillation at Lochranza.

Come the turn of the year the copper pot stills will be installed, shortly followed by the first production run of the new heavily-peated (50ppm) spirit that will become, in time, the flagship Lagg Single Malt Scotch whisky.

Following a grand opening in spring 2019, the Lagg Distillery and Visitor Centre is expected to help the existing Isle of Arran Distillery in Lochranza attract over 200,000 visitors to the Isle of Arran by 2020.