The Spirit of Yorkshire distillery was founded by friends David Thompson and Tom Mellor in 2016, with the distillery’s stillhouse located in the village of Hunmanby near Filey Bay on the coast of North Yorkshire, while the mash tun and washbacks are located at Mellor’s famous Wold Top Brewery nearby.

Spirit of Yorkshire is Yorkshire’s first ever legal single malt whisky distillery, and practices the best of Scottish traditions in whisky-making. The distillery is a field to bottle operation, growing its own barley and using its own water source; distillation takes place in two large stills from Forsyth’s of Rothes, and the spirit still works with a four-plate rectifying column to add a range of stylistic variance to the new make.

Under the guidance of master consultant Dr. Jim Swan, Spirit of Yorkshire’s first spirit ran from the stills in 2016. The distillery’s English single malt whisky is named Filey Bay after the local beauty spot, with the Inaugural Release appearing late in 2019. Spirit of Yorkshire’s Filey Bay English single malt whisky has won numerous awards since its debut.