SPRINKLING OF STARDUST

Sky Garden Gin is the first offering from Scotland’s most southerly distillery, Dark Art Distillery, which opened in July 2021. Sky Garden Gin takes its inspiration from the dark skies above the nearby Galloway Forest Park, which in 2009 became the first designated dark sky park in the UK and only the 4th in the world. It is famed for having no light pollution and its beautiful quality of light, especially at dusk. This coupled with 300 square miles of rugged beauty means that over 7,000 stars are visible. As night-time arrives a crystal clear inky-blue curtain descends upon the forest, studded with sparkling and twinkling stars creating rivers of light, colours and amazing shapes. In essence a stunning sky garden.

Sky Garden Gin was deliberately designed to have an incredibly smooth taste to reflect the crisp evenings and skylines above the forest. It has won numerous awards including Best Newcomer at The Scottish Gin Awards 2021, Gold at the Peoples’ Choice Awards 2022, Silver at International Spirit Challenge 2022. Beyond plaudits for the liquid, testament to our design with Best Label at the World Gin Awards 2022. Described by World Gin Awards: “Beautiful and elegant. An accomplished modern classic with citrus zest, juniper and cardamom seeds. Opens up nicely, with classic botanicals, silky texture and long peppery finish”.

42% ABV with 18 different botanicals including orange peel, grapefruit peel, calamint, coriander seeds, lavender and 3 botanicals that have a nod to the night-time in that they either bloom or scent at night. These are grown locally for the Distillery.

Dark Art Distillery is based in the picturesque town of Kirkcudbright, south-west Scotland where Andrew, the founder’s family have lived for 5 generations. Fiona, our distiller, moved to Kirkcudbright from Raasay. The Distillery has a 450L still named ‘Peggy’ after Andrew’s gran who hailed from Kirkcudbright. The Distillery has been built in an old primary school that had been derelict for 11 years since it closed in 2010. The building is listed and many original features of its former school days have been retained such as the old-style chalk board, wood wall panelling and reclaimed floor boards in the visitor centre. The Distillery’s name has its heritage in both the town of Kirkcudbright and the region of Galloway. The ‘Dark’ comes from the dark skies above the Galloway Forest Park and the ‘Art’ as Kirkcudbright is known as The Artists’ Town due to its long standing and rich association with the art world and in particular the Glasgow Boys and Girls art movement. The town’s art theme continues in the Distillery with 2 original artworks commissioned for the visitor centre. First, a full mural by London based street artist, Zabou, and a modern day version Kirkcudbright Gin Lane by Scottish illustrator, Carl del Angel, which is based on William Hogarth’s 1751.