Jura X Deer Island Rum

“Jura is at the centre of what we do. All our decisions are driven by our desire to support our island community”.

Deer Island Distillers is Jura’s first and only dedicated rum distillery, producing delicious rum just a stone’s throw from our own distillery. It is the creation of Michael Walton and Charlotte Gillet – though they quickly roped in friends Mark, Faye and Amy to lend their own expertise to the business.

Michael, who was born and raised on Jura, first met Charlotte when they were both teenagers, when Charlotte would spend her summers on Jura. At the heart of their company is a commitment to creating a sustainable and circular economy on the island, which has driven their focus on reusing the byproducts of the production process wherever possible.

Rum-soaked orange peel is used to produce a very popular marmalade. The rum raisins – which are used to sweeten the rum – are sold in jars for baking and to other small businesses. Byproducts have also been used to collaborate with other local businesses. Their Cold Brew Coffee Rum, for example, is produced in collaboration with local coffee roasters, Argyll Roasters.

We chatted with Charlotte and Michael about everything Deer Island:

Getting to know

Charlotte & Michael, co-owners of Deer Island Rum

We’re incredibly lucky to have received a lot of support with our business from the community. Deer Island would not have made it through its early years without the support of the locals, and we want to make sure we give the same level of support back.
At Deer Island, we’ve always kept a community pot in the shop to collect change or donations from visitors, and we make sure it goes right into the community every year. Michael is the Chair of The Jura Music Festival Community and a volunteer Fireman. Charlotte is a member of the Jura Community Council and is one of the founding directors of The Jura Community Benefit Fund.
Both spend a significant amount of time working on community projects as one thing anyone from a small island will know is that the only way to make things happen is to volunteer!
This is really the story. We were walking the dog on the beach one day, not long after Charlotte moved over, and were having a general chat about life and things we would like to do. During this conversation Michael mentioned he had always wanted to make rum and Charlotte just said “ok, let’s try that”. In truth, there probably was a more to it than that, with Charlotte asking a few more questions, such as “how do you actually even make rum?”
However, having started and owned a business since graduating university, the idea of giving this a go didn’t seem too crazy to Charlotte. Ultimately, starting Deer Island has allowed them to try and fulfil Michael’s goal to create his own living, as well as providing job opportunities and a positive economic impact on the island.
Quiet but equally vibrant and wild. Wild in terms of the natural environment and the people / summer lifestyle. If we could only choose one place, we would take them to Corran Sands, we live in the house on the beach there, so are slightly biased, but we think it’s the best beach on Jura.