Port Ellen

In the scotch industry, a ghost distillery is the preserved site of former whisky production that has long since shuttered. Until last year, there wasn’t an example more revered than Port Ellen, which developed a cult following as its whiskies became rarer and continued to age when the distillery beside the cragged southern shores of Islay was abandoned in 1983. But after four decades of silence—and a roughly $23 million refurbishment—the legendary malt maker has roared back to life, ushering in a new era of luxury tourism on the remote Hebridean isle. To be sure, spirited pilgrimages to this part of the world are hardly a recent development. Nicknamed “Whisky Island,” these peat-bogged slopes host 10 distilleries, 3,000 locals, and an estimated 50,000 visitors each summer. The reincarnated Port Ellen raises the bar for all three. Guests are welcomed with a tea ceremony in a vaulted bay room suspended above the sea, featuring the island’s first Sky-Frame doorway. Although the adjoining stillhouse has occupied a similar footprint for two centuries, it is now bound by a markedly modern showcase: 17.5mm floor-to-ceiling laminated glass. For £250 you can drink in the sights—along with a precious pour, hand-drawn from a 46-year-old slumbering cask. The experience reveals, at once, the source of the property’s cherished past and the promising future of an entire island.