Balblair has two Gaelic meanings - 'battlefield' or 'town of the plain', which date back to the first Viking landings in Ross-shire. Edderton, the home of Balblair, is known as the 'parish of the peat'. With the local supply of peat and soft water from the Struie Hills, Balblair Distillery is perfectly situated.
Balblair began as a simple pot still distillery, under the watchfull eye of John Ross. By 1887 the distillery had been expanded up the hill and it reported an output of 50,000 gallons a year. The distillate is not yet bottled by the present owners Inver House, but Balblair remains a full working distillery.
The Balblair whisky is a component of the Ballantine's blends.

From the book 'The Scottish Collection' - classic malts by Carol P. Shaw:
Although its origins are lost in the mists of illicit distillation, it is claimed that Blablair was founded in 1749, which would make it one fo the oldest distilleries in the country. The present buildings, dating from 1870's, are set in pretty contryside in an area known as the 'parish of peats'. The distillery had very recently been mothballed by its then owners, Allied Distillers, but was acquired from them in the spring of 1996 by the independent Inver House Distillers. The addition of Balblair gives Inver Houose four malt distilleries - Knockdhu, Speyburn-Glenlivet and Pultney, the latter also a recent purchase from Allied.

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Source www.bbr.com

Balblair Distillery, Highlands

Balblair is the second oldest distillery in Scotland. The name is Gaelic and means "battlefield" or "town of the plain". The first Balblair distillery was a pot still built on Balblair farm on the estate of the Rosses of Balnagowan in the late 1790s. John Ross succeeded in making it a profitable commercial enterprise in the face of financial troubles, bad debts, competition by smugglers and the ever-present exciseman. Ross, his sons and grandsons operated Balblair until the very end of the 19th century.

In 1894 the Ross family line had petered out and around 1894 the lease passed to one Alexander Cowan from Inverness. Cowan set about modernising the distillery on a new site and laid out the distillery that can be seen today. Duty increases spelled the end for Cowan and in 1911 he put everything saleable under the hammer to meet his debts. The distillery was kept going with a skeleton staff until the army seized it for the duration of the Second World War.

At the end of the Second World War, the distillery was acquired by a solicitor, Robert Cumming, also owner of Pulteney. When Cumming retired, he sold the distillery in 1970 to Hiram Walker. In 1996 the distillery was purchased by Inver House Group.

The majority of the production is used for blends of the Inver group like Inverhouse, Catton's, Hankey Bannister, MacArthur's, Glen Talloch and Pinwinnie Royal, and in the malt liquor called Heater Cream. Every year the Distillery releases the finest examples of Balblair as Vintage Single Malt bottlings which exemplify Balblair Highland Single Malt style, redolent of rich spices, dried fruits and a sublte leathery notes.