Bute Yard | Eden Scott

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Bute Yard

Bute Yard

Bute Yard will be a food and drink hub and visitor experience like no other

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About Bute Yard

Bute Yard is a collaborative project developed in partnership between the Bute Family and the Isle of Bute Distillery to create a flexible commercial space in the heart of Rothesay. Utilising both interior and exterior spaces, the Yard is an opportunity for Bute based businesses to create or expand their physical presence on our island.  


The Yard when complete, will include a gin distillery, brewery, bar, pop-up restaurant/café facility, and flexible event space which will be open for business year round. The main building will open out into a dynamic outside space which will be used to host farmers markets, food and community events and as a venue which can support and complement significant long standing local events such as the Bute Highland Games, the Agricultural Show, Bute Fest and other community led initiatives. 


With collaboration with island stakeholders Bute Yard will work closely with island businesses and within the existing calendar of Bute events to ensure that Buteyard is a functional and proactive member of the island’s business community.
 

Bute Yard
Bute Yard
Eden Scott

Isle Of Bute Gin

This quaint Scottish island is the inspiration behind Isle of Bute Gin’s small batch gin, crafted with care in the heart of Rothesay using a traditional copper still.  Their gin embodies the very best in craft production. They source botanicals from across Bute and nearby areas to create best-in-class gin that lends itself to life on the Scottish isles.

Head Distiller, Simon Tardivel, has worked all over the world as a multi-award-winning distiller and brewer, before falling in love with the Isle of Bute while living there. Simon claims that Bute’s landscape and wild places are the driving force behind the recipes that create this selection of small batch gin.

“The Isle of Bute is a magical place and it has inspired very special recipes for exciting craft gins that capture the essence of island life” says Simon.

In anticipation of the Bute Yard project, Isle of Bute Gin took up temporary premises at 55 High Street Rothesay and opened its distillery doors to the public in July 2020 with great success. Once the ButeYard development is complete, Isle of Bute Gin will move into a larger space within the Yard and scale up production. There will be an expanded offering of gin tastings and cocktail classes or visitors can simply kick back with a drink in the outdoor gin garden!

Bute Yard

Isle Of Bute Smokehouse

Isle of Bute Smokehouse was founded in 1888 by Peter Barr to produce kippers, the quintessential fish product from the West of Scotland. Barr’s kippers were sent all over the world and were believed to be Queen Victoria’s choice when in residence at Balmoral. In the 1950s, the firm was taken over by the Ritchie family and they switched the focus of production to smoked salmon – although Bute Smokehouse still smokes kippers and trout to this day.

Throughout an extensive programme of refurbishment in January 2014 the smokehouse has become a state of the art food processing facility, but firmly centred on the unchanged and original kiln, the oldest and longest continuous production fish smoking kiln in Scotland.

In 2019 Bute Smokehouse expanded it’s production to supply Co-Op stores around Argyll and Bute. The team also began attending farmers markets, like Bowhouse in Fife, to bring their smoked products to a wider audience. 

The space Bute Smokehouse will have at Bute Yard will enable them to continue to grow and develop, keeping the valuable skills, which make their products so special, alive on our island.