Dunnet Bay Distillers has been granted Planning Permission to refurbish the 200-year-old Mill and surrounding land at Castletown, near the distillery’s headquarters.
The Caithness-based company which owns the multi-award-winning Rock Rose Gin and Holy Grass Vodka brands, acquired the historic Mill in 2021. The restoration and fit-out of the refurbished building could cost up to £4million.
The plans involve a full refurbishment of the dilapidated, listed Mill building, with a view to creating further resources for the rapidly expanding business including a visitor centre and a whisky distillery.
Dunnet Bay Distillers products sell globally, enjoying strong sales throughout Scotland and the rest of the UK as well as being distributed in 24 countries across the world.
The eco-friendly spirits company was established in 2014 by husband-and-wife team, Claire Murray and Martin Murray.
Claire Murray, co-founder and co-director of Dunnet Bay Distillers, said: “We are delighted that we now have planning permission to convert the old Mill and thank Highland Council for its decision. We have been working hard with our plans and are looking forward to sharing them in the coming months. The warehouse building has already commenced work and we hope to open a temporary café and small visitor area soon.”
Earlier this year, the company was granted permission to develop a temporary visitor centre, café, and shop near the site of the Old Mill.
Martin Murray, co-founder and co-director of Dunnet Bay Distillers, added: “We’re excited at the prospect of regenerating this fine old building which has lain empty for many years. The Mill will become a Caithness landmark once again and its development will transform our already successful business.”
The company earlier this year asked anyone with connections to the Mill to get in touch to tell their personal stories about the building. The company intends to embed the story of its history into the fabric of the building as they create a new destination on the north coast of Scotland. “We aim to make it into a local destination distillery and so the history is something we wish to remember,” said Martin Murray.
Andrea Wise, Director of Organic Architects, said: “This is a rare opportunity for a thriving local business to regenerate this landmark building which has been unable to find a user for decades. The distillery will be powered by green electricity, making it one of the most sustainable distilleries in the UK industry.” The designs will be contemporary whilst respecting the fabric and style of the old building.
The company has not yet announced when work will commence.
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NOTES TO EDITORS
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Jo Jacobius
Dunnet Bay Distillers Press Office
c/o Axiom Communications
+44 (0)7850338998
+44 (0)208 347 8206
We are delighted to announce the launch of two new Themed Competitions. There is some cross-over, if you are unsure which competition to consider please get in touch. Please note that you cannot submit the same proposal to both competitions.
1. Engineering Biology – closes midday on the 25th of August
We have £750k for 12-month Phase 1a projects finishing at TRL3. We expect to fund 7-8 projects.
We have included the possibility that innovators can also signal their interest in a follow-up 12-month Phase 1b project to take their work to TRL4. We have done this to try to facilitate the retention of staff. There will be a decision point towards the end of Phase 1a and only projects deemed successful will be kept on for Phase 1b. Phase 1b also has £750k available.
The Challenges in this competition are wide-ranging but fall under the areas of:
- power and energy,
- materials and
- sensing.
We are running a virtual Q&A day on the 5th of July and there is an opportunity to book a virtual 1-1 session on the 7th and 11th of July. Please book asap – we expect these virtual sessions to be popular.
More information is here
2. Beyond the smartwatch – generation-after-next (GAN) wearables – closes midday on the 25th of August
We have £750k for 12-month projects finishing at TRL2-4. We envisage funding 4-5 projects.
The Challenges in this competition are:
- biocompatibility,
- assay development and
- applicability of accessible bodily fluids to the measurement of particular biomolecules.
We are running a virtual Q&A day on the 6th of July. There will also be the opportunity to book 1-1s but these dates have not yet been released in the document – I know they will be the 19th (0900-1100) and 21st of July (time TBC). Please book asap – we expect these virtual sessions to be popular.
More information is here
DASA are pleased to announce the launch of a new themed competition on behalf of DSTL. Up to £800k is available to fund advanced technology which can underpin a future cooperative missile. Cooperative missiles can communicate with each other, share situational awareness and organise themselves to ‘work together’ efficiently to achieve a common objective
The competition has the following four challenge areas:
- Challenge 1: Distributed target detection and identification
- Challenge 2: Data processing onboard and between missiles
- Challenge 3: Enhanced navigation through cooperation
- Challenge 4: Application of Artificial Intelligence (AI)
The closing date for this competition is midday 2 August 2022.
Full details can be found using this link
The brightest minds in the UK Defence industry are being encouraged to continue developing more battle-winning ideas to help Ukraine.
- Campaign launched to bolster Defence innovation in support of Ukraine’s Armed Forces
- At least £25 million of funding available for successful proposals to tackle specific needs
- Focus on rapidly delivering from innovation to battleground
Defence Ministers are calling on UK industry to accelerate the development of equipment for the Ukrainian armed forces, launching a £25 million campaign fund for the design and delivery of equipment to the country across the coming months.
The competition will be focused on bolstering the existing provision for artillery, coastal defence and aerial systems.
The Government believes drawing on UK expertise across the defence industry, including from innovative small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), could provide battle-winning solutions for the Ukrainian forces.
Defence Procurement Minister, Jeremy Quin said:
Since Russia’s brutal invasion UK defence suppliers with active support from MOD and DE&S have taken equipment from desktop ideas to the front line. This £25m plus fund is designed to capture ongoing work and support innovative ideas to meet Ukrainian defence requirements.
Recent months have shown the ingenuity and innovation of the UK defence sector. We want to ensure ongoing creativity is harnessed and directed at key requirements and all companies with a capability that can help are aware of the challenge.
Working closely with industry we have already seen innovative ideas quickly reaching Theatre. This includes capabilities such as heavy lift Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) and anti-tank loitering munitions, as well as adapting existing weapons systems such as integrating Brimstone for use as a ground launched weapon.
The requirements fall into four categories:
- Artillery – Procurement and manufacturing proposals to support the resupply of ammunition and the maintenance of Soviet calibre 152mm and 122mm weapon systems.
- Coastal defence – Supporting the deterrence of hostile naval forces, persistent surveillance, and delivery of attacks at range, including from autonomous or remotely-controlled vehicles.
- Military logistics and resupply – Maintenance and development of infrastructure for supply lines by sea and land, including waterways, overbridging and general Ukrainian engineering capability.
- Unmanned aerial systems (UAS) – The provision of UAS capabilities across a broad spectrum of capabilities, from lethal effects to surveillance, electronic warfare and heavy lift.
The UK has already committed more than £2.8 billion to support Ukraine through humanitarian aid and grants, as well as military kit including 120 armoured vehicles, air defence systems and more than 6,500 anti-tank missiles.
Industry organisations will need to submit proposals by June 10th, when a sift will take place to access the funding, with at least £25 million available.
The initial focus is on equipment that can be sourced and supplied in the next four months, with longer-term capability development in scope where applicable.
See the slides which include application details (on slide 2) using this link.
Applications should be sent to dcmc-ukraineinnovationproposals@mod.gov.uk
DASA have launched a new Open Call Innovation Focus Area: Countering IEDs by Novel Technology and Techniques. We are seeking proposals that can rapidly accelerate and enhance electronic capabilities which can counter Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs). We are looking for novel methods which either use the Radio Frequency (RF) spectrum or provide an understanding of the RF spectrum in order to detect and disrupt the functionality of IEDs.
There are 3 challenge areas:
- Challenge 1 – To capture and analyse RF signals using novel spectrum survey techniques
- Challenge 2 – Approaches to permanently or temporarily disable commercial communications links and/or the electronics within a Remote Controlled Explosive Device.
- Challenge 3 – New or novel hardware and ancillaries (system components)
We are looking for projects to deliver solutions at TRL 5/6 , with project duration of 6-18 months to the value of between £150k and £400k.
Full details can be found using this link.
The Weapons Sector Research Framework (WSRF) has released an innovation call covering Next Generation Technologies for Hypersonic Weapons. These include advances in Materials; Guidance, Navigation and Control; Fuzing/Warhead; Aerodynamics/Aerothermal; and Propulsion systems as well as other applicable novel technologies. The overall budget is between £1-1.5M and the closing date for proposals is 10th June 2022.
WSRF is a partnership of currently over 100 organisations of different sizes (including academia) established through Dstl, with the management undertaken by QinetiQ. It builds upon the research conducted by the Weapons Science and Technology Centre (WSTC).
DASA has launched two new Innovation Focus Areas.
1. Double Act: National Security Technologies
A number of Challenges will be launched under this Innovation Focus Area (IFA) which is run on behalf of the National Security Technology and Innovation Exchange (NSTiX) Operational Tech Co-Creation Centre. Information about NSTiX is available to view using this link.
Challenge 1 focuses on addressing audio and visual capture hardware and software innovations to capture, store, transfer and tag audio, visual and audio/visual evidence. This is vital to ensure that visual data can be captured and analysed efficiently. We are seeking projects with a maximum value of £100k. This Challenge will be open until midday 14th of September. Projects should begin at TRL4 and finish at TRL6. Projects will last 3-6 months.
More information is available to view using this link.
2. Human augmentation
This IFA is focused on generation-after-next technologies. DASA expects to fund proposals of around £70k which provide a proof of concept (TRL3) within a 6-month contract
More information available using this link.
If you have any questions, please get in touch and we’ll send you our ‘Top tips’ for applications. Deb (djcarr@dasa.service.mod.uk) – Innovation Partner
DASA has partnered with the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) to run a themed competition on the remote monitoring of sensitive sites. As a minimum, funded projects will finish at TRL3/4. We have £750K to fund at least 10 projects. Projects must finish by May 2023. There are three Challenges:
- Challenge 1: built environment and infrastructure
- Challenge 2: land use
- Challenge 3: security and resilience
Earth observation, robotics and autonomy could all be important for this competition. More details are here.
DASA are holding a dial-in session on the 31st of March and two one-to-one sessions on the 5th and 6th of April. Booking links are in the competition document. Please note that these fill quickly. Use this link to find the booking links.