A local distillery that started a stones throw away from our front doorstep a mere 6.5 miles is the Hooting Owl distillery. Founded in Barmby Moor at the foot of the Yorkshire Wolds in 2018. 

The vision of Hooting Owl was to create top-quality, hand-crafted small batch spirits that are inspired y the local area of Yorkshire. Drawing inspiration from History, Military, Flora, Fauna, Art and the flavours that define Yorkshire. 

They describe themselves as a artisan distillery producing dry gins, rums, fruit gins and premium vodka. Hooting Owl handcraft their spirits to ensure quality in every batch of spirit. They are planning to launch 2 new product in the near future a York gin and thier unique take on bourbon that will be called - The Corny Owl. 

Owls are very much a significant iconography for Hooting Owl hence the name. The owl is named Sir Tyton Hodgins, it is a bronzed owl that sits above the porch of Barmby Moor house where the original distillery was founded. The founder Dom restored the owl statue  when he purchased the house, the owl was named after a former resident of the house when the building was being restored, by stumbling across a concealed safe that contained a bottle of Sir Hodgins signature gin and a recipe book of secret recipes along with a diary of of an original distillery believed to be around 1865 on the site complete with drawings that were inspired by Yorkshire that has become the same ethos and inspiration for the current Hooting Owl distillery.

In 2024 Hooting Owl moved its distilling operation to the centre of York, opening a bar attached to distillery that patrons can see the working stills and crafting of the spirits of Hooting Owl, it was the first and currently only licensed distillery within city walls  the new site of distillery has 9 small batch stills and can produce around a 1000 bottles per day, but they do not operate at capacity to ensure time and care is taken into hand-crafting quality and consistency. 

We love hearing the story of Yorkshire spirit makers and are proud partners of Hooting Owl, we often have a range of bottles in stock in shop. We here at whiskys.co.uk can't wait to see what come next for one of our local distillers.