Our Story
Our story begins in the North Yorkshire spa town of Harrogate, which is home and inspiration for our award-winning Spirits.
In 1571, William Slingsby discovered the unique properties of the natural spring water from Harrogate’s Tewit Well. His discovery brought thousands of visitors to ‘take the waters’, which was thought to have medicinal properties and to this day, people from all over the world visit the spa town to restore their body, mind and soul. Slingsby Gin seeks to capture the 'Spirit of Harrogate'; synonymous with its beautiful and restorative nature and deliver it in a bottle for you to enjoy.
INSPIRED BY THE SLINGSBY STORY
Our founders Marcus Black and Mike Carthy wanted to create a product that would celebrate the spa town heritage and bring to life the essence and restorative nature of Harrogate. It took over 15 months and 18 different variants of gin before they decided on the perfect recipe, and in 2015, the Spirit of Harrogate was born.
ROOTED IN HARROGATE
In 2026, Slingsby Gin began a new chapter under the stewardship of Chris and Asma Williams, who live in Harrogate with their two children. Chris and Asma are committed to preserving the ethos that has defined the Spirit of Harrogate from the beginning: exceptional craftsmanship, a deep connection to Yorkshire, and a celebration of the restorative nature of Harrogate's historic spa waters.
LOCAL BOTANICALS AND FRUITS
Our gins are crafted using 24 carefully selected botanicals. These include hand-grown local plants from Rudding Park Hotel kitchen garden in Harrogate and fruits from local Yorkshire suppliers that go into our flavoured range; our Rhubarb Gin is made with fruit from the world famous ‘Rhubarb Triangle’ in Wakefield and we use Yorkshire gooseberries and blackberries from Spilman's Farm in York. These ingredients are combined with a handful of the finest ingredients from around the world such as the grapefruit peel that gives our London Dry Gin that delicate citrus flavour and the most important ingredient of them all, our piney juniper berries.
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WORLD FAMOUS WATERS
Following Slingsby’s discovery over 400 years ago, Harrogate has built its reputation on the unique properties of its waters. Within a two mile radius of the town centre, 88 mineral springs rise to the surface and of these, some 35 are within an acre of Harrogate’s beautiful Valley Gardens.
Each of our spirits use water drawn from the world-famous Harrogate aquifer.
OUR MASTER DISTILLER
The distillation, blending and bottling is all carried out by Intercontinental Brands (ICB) Limited, our production partner based in Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire. There they expertly combine Harrogate aquifer water, pure single grain spirit and our carefully selected botanicals and ingredients before bottling our award-winning products.
"Spirit of Harrogate set out to create a product that celebrates their town and in working with local suppliers and forging ties with the community, have more than beaten their initial goal."