Some partnerships make sense on paper. This one makes sense in the soil.

We are proud to announce that Galloway Distillery has joined The Gralloch as an official partner for 2026. Based in Newton Stewart, eighteen miles from Gatehouse of Fleet, the distillery shares something fundamental with this event: a belief that Galloway deserves to be discovered and experienced. 

A homecoming built on purpose

Galloway Distillery (formerly Crafty Distillery) was founded in 2025 by Sam Heughan and his business partner Alex Norouzi. It was not an exercise in branding. It was a decision rooted in something older and more personal than that.

Heughan had already built a reputation for craft and quality through The Sassenach, launched in 2021 to widespread acclaim. What came next was different: a chance to bring that same dedication home, to the land that had shaped him in the first place. He found his partners in Graham Taylor and Craig Rankin, the founders of former Crafty Distillery, and the team behind the critically acclaimed Hills & Harbour spirits, local crafters with deep roots in the region and the same instinct for doing things properly. Together, they set about building something that could represent Galloway on a larger stage.

The distillery sits outside Newton Stewart, looking out across the Galloway Hills. The building itself was constructed by hand using local larch. The bar is a single Douglas fir trunk. The view to the hills is the same one riders will recognise when they push through the Galloway Forest Park in May: the same hills, the same light, the same silence between the trees.

The Gallo'way

To understand Galloway Distillery, you have to understand what Galloway does to you.

Heughan grew up here. New Galloway, the Glenkens, Kenmure Castle: a childhood spent in what he describes as a remote, detached freedom that never really leaves you. As a ten-year-old he stood on the highest point of Kenmure Castle's derelict ramparts, imagining himself a warrior, a grand explorer, the keeper of secrets buried in the hillside. He has said he would never have imagined, at that age, that he would return decades later to literally walk back through the playground of his youth.

That experience of Galloway getting into you, shaping how you think and how far you are willing to go, is what the distillery calls The Gallo'way. It is a philosophy as much as a place. The idea that growing up exploring these hills and forests, communicating with the past at standing stones, being chased by mythical ghosts through the trees, carves something into your imagination that drives everything you do afterwards. Galloway creates vivid curiosity. It inspires you to go further. The distillery is built on that impulse.

He created Galloway Distillery, in his own words, to champion and celebrate the unique heritage and landscape of this corner of Scotland. A homecoming. A new chapter. The pursuit of fine spirit from an ancient and underestimated land.

Why this partnership works

Since 2017, Galloway Distillery has built a reputation for innovation, quality and taste, whilst also working hard to shine a light on this special corner of Scotland. The Gralloch is committed to the Galloway and Southern Ayrshire UNESCO Biosphere Sustainable Events Charter, and to delivering an event that strengthens the place it rides through. Together, The Gralloch and Galloway Distillery both take inspiration from the unspoilt Galloway forests and coastline, but are also driven by the same desire to be a part of it, be challenged by it and to invite the world to come and experience it. 

The roads through the Galloway Forest Park do not ask for your credentials. They ask for commitment. That is something both of these organisations understand well.

We will be sharing more about what this partnership looks like across the festival weekend of 15–17 May. In the meantime, find out more at gallowaydistillery.com.