The Fynoderee Distillery

Once upon a time there was a little juniper bush, the very last of its kind on the Isle of Man. It lived up high at the top Glen Auldyn in the north of the Island where it was discovered and well-meaningly transplanted to the Milntown Estate at the bottom of the glen, where very sadly it didn’t survive.

Fast forward 70 years and who would have thought that this little bush would go on to inspire a brand new distillery on the Isle of Man! Juniper is the primary ingredient in gin and it was reading online articles about the re-introduction of Juniper to the Island by the Manx Wildlife Trust which led us to discover the story of “Kitty Kerruish and The Fynoderee”, a Manx folklore story that went on to inspire our brand identity.

The idea of starting up a Manx gin distillery had been with us (local couple, Paul and Tiffany Kerruish) for a number of years before we met Gerard, who happily decided to join us in setting up The Fynoderee Distillery.

As enthusiastic and knowledgeable gin drinkers, we had become increasingly frustrated that there was no small-batch gin producer on the Island when the botanical landscape and “Biosphere” was so well suited to producing an original and high quality product using locally foraged ingredients. Deciding to take matters in to our own hands, a confluence of events in our lives gradually turned a pipe-dream into a reality when we met Gerard who worked for a successful small batch distiller in England (Masons Dry Yorkshire Gin) . A resulting friendship and working relationship with Gerard has now brought together the team that is ‘Fynoderee’.

Sadly the newly planted Juniper groves in Glen Auldyn will take up to 10 years to produce berries, so for now we are importing our Juniper. However we are committed to using Manx grown or locally foraged botanicals wherever we can.