The Glen Albyn distillery was built on the site of a former mill in 1846 by James Sutherland, the Provost of Inverness, which was once home to many breweries and maltings. The site was turned back into a flour mill in 1866, before once again becoming a distillery in 1884. The distillery manager, John Birni, left to form a partnership with Leith blender Charles Mackinlay. They built the neighbouring Glen Mhor distillery in 1892 and bought Glen Albyn in 1920. Both distilleries became the property of the Distillers Company Limited (DCL) after it bought Mackinlay & Birnie in 1972. They were both closed in 1983—the truly annus horribilis of the Whisky Loch—and have since been demolished. A few rare official bottlings of Glen Albyn exist from the 1960s and 1970s, as well as in the Rare Malts range and independent bottlings.

A Glen Albyn 26 year old distilled in 1975 and bottled at cask strength in 2002 for the Rare Malts series. Created in the mid-1990s by United Distillers (Diageo), the Rare Malts series features bottlings from many of the group’’s distilleries, including some of the lesser known whose production was generally used for blends, as well as closed distilleries such as Port Ellen and Brora. Bottled at cask strength, the whiskies in the range are also known for their sometimes astounding alcohol content, often exceeding 60% ABV. The Rare Malts range was discontinued in 2005.