Our Story
When we opened Summerhall Distillery, it was the first exclusive gin distillery to be established in Edinburgh for over 150 years.
Our gin is based on an original 1947 recipe. It features nine Bombay botanicals, engineered by us to create Pickering’s famous full-bodied flavour with perfect bitter-sweet balance.
A little history
Before that, we (Matt and Marcus) had been friends and business partners for years, with backgrounds in engineering, furniture restoration and property renovation.
We were working at Summerhall when we spotted the derelict dogs kennels from the small animal hospital that once stood in the middle of the old Royal (Dick) Veterinary School. What to do with it?
As fate would have it, Marcus had recently inherited a gin recipe from a friend of his late father. Hmmm…
Add to that our mutual penchant for a good gin, and the next step seemed obvious.
Never mind that we didn’t, strictly speaking, have a distillery. We rolled up our sleeves and built one.
Never mind that we had no background in distilling. We tried, tested and experimented until we were experts.
Never mind that everyone told us it couldn’t be done. We got on and did it.
And so began the story of the Botanical Engineers.
Our Inventions
Walk this way
The Botanical
Engineers
Engineers
Meet the team
Our Distillery
Our Shop
