Elgin architect Charles Doig, was famous for designing
the pagoda roof.
The 'Pagoda Roof' is a malt whisky distillery's most instantly recognisable
feature. Take it away, and you don't seem to have a distillery any
more. It would be like having a French vineyard without a chateau.
It was as recently as the 1890s that these steeply-pitched
roofs with the pagoda caps started to appear above the square-built
kilns of malt distilleries. They are, basically, very attractive
chimneys. Their height and the design of the vent at the top allowed
an improved draught for the peat fires below as they dried the malted
barley.
Traditional malt kilns draw the hot air
from the peat furnace through the malt by way of a chimney effect
generated by the characteristic steep roofs and pagoda heads of
many Scottish distilleries. The pagoda roof was introduced around
the 1890s as it offered an improved air draught.
In most cases, where most distilleries buy in their malt they have
mostly lost their function other than a piece of visual identity.
