Distillery
Scarabus
Scarabus takes its name from Islay farmland between Bridgend and Ballygrant, home for barely a year in 1817 and 1818 to a distillery called Scarabuss. In Old Norse, the name means 'rocky place'. Independent bottler Hunter Laing revived it in 2019 for a new Islay single malt. It launched at Fèis Île, the same year the family firm's own Ardnahoe distillery opened its doors. The whisky comes from an undisclosed Islay distillery, not Hunter Laing's own stills. Bottled at 46% abv with no age statement, it follows a traditional peaty Islay style. Expect peat smoke and sea salt up front, then leather, stewed rhubarb and vanilla sweetness on the palate. Hunter Laing built real mystery into the branding. Each bottle carries the mantra 'only those who seek shall find', with symbols drawn from the work of Islay-born scholar John Francis Campbell. Campbell collected Celtic folklore and invented the sunshine recorder, a device that measures daily sunshine hours.
