Glen Scotia Distillery has been opened and closed numerous times, but unlike the other 30 distilleries that once existed in Campbeltown, it has survived. In 1832, Stewart, Galbraith & Company originally established the distillery under the name Scotia. The company transitioned to a limited company in 1895 and was sold to West Highland Malt Distilleries in 1919. In 1924, on the eve of the Great Depression, local renowned distiller Duncan MacCallum acquired Scotia. The distillery closed between 1928-1930. After MacCallum's suicide in 1930, it was sold to Bloch Brothers. In 1954, Sir Maurice Bloch sold it along with Scapa Distillery to Hiram Walker. A. Gillies & Company purchased Glen Scotia Distillery in 1955 and operated it until 1984. In 1989, Glen Scotia was sold to Gibson International, owners of Littlemill Distillery. In 1994, Gibson International went into receivership, after which Glen Scotia and Littlemill were acquired by A. Bulloch & Co. This company owned Glen Catrine Bonded Warehouse in Mauchline (built in 1974, now one of Scotland's largest bottling plants) and also owned Loch Lomond Distillery (purchased by Sandy Bulloch in 1986). Glen Scotia had been mothballed, operating only a few weeks each year by a team from Springbank Distillery. In 2007, the distillery entered intermittent production with an annual capacity of approximately 100,000 litres of pure alcohol. In March 2014, after more than a year of negotiations, the holding company of these enterprises, Loch Lomond Distillers Ltd, was acquired by a group of senior managers backed by a private equity firm. The company was restructured as Loch Lomond Group Ltd, led by former Imperial Tobacco senior executive Colin Matthews and former Diageo CFO Nick Rose, with Exponent Private Equity as its holding company. The distillery underwent comprehensive upgrades and expansion, equipped with a new mash tun, new roof, new spirit safe, and visitor center. A series of new products were launched in early 2015, including Double Cask (bourbon cask maturation, PX sherry cask finish), 15 years old, Victoriana (cask strength), and other expressions.

As David Stark wrote in his book 'The Distilleries of Campbeltown', regarding the decline of Campbeltown's whisky industry, 'the most heartbreaking event was likely the suicide of Duncan McCallum on December 23, 1930.' McCallum drowned himself in Crosshill Loch at the age of 83, and had been the town's most outstanding distiller. The Bloch brothers changed the distillery's name from Scotia to Glen Scotia between 1934 and 1935. In a press release issued in October 1940, they stated that most of their products were blended and exported to the United States.