 Although it is thought that whisky has been distilled on the site since the 16th century, when cattle drovers would buy from a local still, the distillery was not established until 1897 under the name of Tomatin Spey Distillery Co Ltd.In 1986 it was taken over by Japanese conglomerate Takara Shuzo and was renamed The Tomatin Distillery Co Ltd.The number of stills have since been reduced to 12 and recently it was the first distillery in Scotland to install a wood pellet boiler, in 2012.