A distillery is aiming to forge links between Tromode and a distant British territory some 7,900 miles away after establishing a bottling plant in the island.

Nestled deep in the South Atlantic Ocean, the Falkland Islands are home to a unique and locally owned enterprise: Falkland Islands Spirits. The business, otherwise known as Tumbledown Distillery, is led by managing director John Hellowell and founder Taff Davies.

Operating between the remote landscapes of the Falklands and now the Isle of Man, this micro-distillery crafts small, distinctive batches of gin.

Taff Davies, a former soldier, stayed in the Falklands long after others moved on. He began distilling behind his home in Stanley, using fresh local water and native botanicals.

John takes up the story: ‘We formed a company. We brought in another local friend of Taff's, so I took a 20% share in this distillery, Saul, the other colleague took 20% and Taff then took 60%. He's the brainchild behind it all.’

‘We went into business. It was an overnight success. I mean, everything that we sort of put together in the original business proposal for the bank worked.’

Tourists visiting the Falklands soon began asking where they could buy the gin in the UK.

But due to the islands’ isolation- and the lack of regular flights or shipping routes- distribution was a major challenge.

After much persistence, a solution emerged with help from the Royal Navy’s Auxiliary Fleet, which now transports the gin in a 500-litre stainless steel tank. Once it reaches Southampton, a local courier from Ballasalla handles the final leg of the journey to the company’s unit in the Tromode Industrial Estate.

John said: ‘This is all as a result of people asking, because we realised there was a demand in the British Isles to sell this stuff. Gin has become a very popular drink over the last 10 years, and it's just proving to be that the Isle of Man was an ideal base to bottle it from.’

With a land area comparable to Wales but a population closer to that of Port St Mary, the Falklands are remote and sparsely populated. John describes the process as a ‘simple operation’ once the gin reaches the Isle of Man, noting that it’s as much about marketing as it is about packaging.

‘There's definitely a collector's market for what we'll call rare gins, and it's very difficult to get your hands on it, as you can imagine.’

‘You know we can only in a year produce as a maximum 3,000 litres, which includes the supply for the Falklands as well.’

The unique selling point of the gin is the location of where it is made, and the unique ingredients that are put in fresh - such as scurvy grass.

John said: ‘I suppose everybody sort of sees it as a nautical thing, because in history, scurvy was given to sailors who sailed the high seas for 12 months at a time, and they became vitamin deficient in their diet. As soon as they got to landfall, they'd be looking for scurvy grass, which is a wild plant, and they'd eat it raw because it's full of vitamins.’

The gin is available to purchase on the company’s website with an £11 postage fee or alternatively the distillery stock exclusively with The Wine Cellar on Peel Road for £139.