Cameron McCann
Cameron McCann was born in August of 1967, but when he entered working life some twenty years later, it was as a police officer in London, a career that would shape both his discipline and his sense of operational routine. His personal life, too, was already in motion. He and June met through a mutual friend at a badminton club in Helensburgh, and they married in the late 1980s before moving to London, where they spent twelve years. After fifteen years in policing, McCann transferred back to Scotland and retired in 2007 at the age of forty. But retirement did not mean slowing down; it simply became the hinge point between a first career and a second one. That one was to be rooted in Scotland’s visitor economy, local storytelling, and eventually spirits made on their own equipment.
The McCanns’ first family business venture after policing was an art gallery and whisky shop called Ealaín Gallery, located on the banks of Loch Lomond. The venture was an early expression of what would become a recurring theme in McCann’s public comments: the belief that people don’t simply buy a drink; they buy the history around it, the place it comes from, and the experience that frames it. Over time, the business expanded into a second whisky shop in Stirling, bringing their work closer to the city that would later become their distilling home.
In 2010, McCann helped launch the Stirling Whisky Festival. That gathering was not merely a marketing event; it was another step in learning the trade from the outside in, through direct contact with producers, importers, and the public. A few years later, the same event-driven approach expanded further when the McCanns established the Stirling Gin Festival in 2014, described as one of the early gin festivals in the UK. By this stage, the family’s professional life was increasingly centered on spirits, hospitality, and visitor experience rather than conventional retail alone.
It was while hosting that festival that an idea hardened into a plan. By 2017, the McCanns had purchased the Old Smiddy, a nineteenth-century former blacksmith’s building beside Stirling Castle, and began conversion work with local professionals to create a visitor-facing distillery. That plan became physical reality in July 2019, when the doors of Stirling Distillery officially opened. The distillery’s location, often described as being “in the shadows of Stirling Castle,”was more than a scenic detail. It signaled the McCanns’ strategy: to anchor products in local history and folklore, and to make the distillery itself part of the Stirling visitor circuit. McCann has publicly described his own role as focused on business development and sales, including national and international markets, while June’s role is characterized as more creative.
As the distillery matured, the business increasingly took on the shape of a multigenerational family operation. Their son, Hugo McCann, became distiller at Stirling, directly involved in spirit production from the stillhouse onward. Their daughter, Elle McCann, serves as Distillery Manager, overseeing day-to-day operations and the visitor experience. In that sense, Stirling Distillery has been built and operated not only by a married couple, but also with visible, hands-on participation from their children, extending the McCanns’ family enterprise into a new generation.
In 2020, the McCanns launched an independent bottling brand, Sons of Scotland, which allowed them to participate in whisky while still building toward their own new make. Then, in October 2023, Stirling Distillery ran its first whisky spirit through the stills. The moment carried symbolic weight: it marked the return of whisky distillation to Stirling after more than 170 years, since the previous Stirling distillery closed in 1852.
Recognition followed. In March 2025, Stirling Distillery announced that its New Make Spirit had been named Best Scottish New Make Spirit at the World Whiskies Awards 2025. The distillery highlighted Hugo McCann’s role in guiding the spirit’s production, while Cameron McCann issued a statement expressing pride in the team behind the result. The same announcement outlined plans to fill a limited number of casks in early 2026, tying awards into the practical business of laying down stock for future release.
Across the verified record, Cameron McCann’s story reads as a layered build rather than a lucky strike: a long first career in public service, a marriage that evolved into a business partnership, years spent in whisky retail and festival-building, and finally a distillery positioned to turn local history into liquid, with his family at his side and at the foot of one of Scotland’s most beautiful and symbolic citadels.
Sources:
London Spirits Competition, “How Cameron McCann…Manages His Distillery”, londonspiritscompetition.com
Stirling Distillery Official website, “Our Story”, stirlingdistillery.com
Stirling Distillery news post, “Stirling Distillery’s New Make Spirit Crowned Best in the World,” 27 Mar 2025, stirlingdistillery.com
Mark Littler Ltd, “Stirling Distillery: Whisky Distilled In Stirling Again,” Beth Squires, 16 Oct 2023, marklittler.com
The Sunday Post, “Stirling Distillery: Whisky-making returns…” , 17 Oct 2023, sundaypost.com
Contributed by Tracy McLemore, Fairview, Tennessee USA
