The distillery, whose name means “mountain slope or garden on the slope”, is located a few miles north of Dunrobin Castle near the village of Brora and is therefore part of the region of the northern Highlands. It was built in 1967 in the immediate vicinity of another distillery, which was subsequently renamed Brora after both distilleries temporarily produced under the same name. The water for Clynelish comes from the Clynemilton Burn.