The 'Glen of the Rocky Place' rises behind Aberlour and extends toward Edinvillie. Ben Rinnes mountain stands beside the distillery, though the site itself is relatively flat. The distillery's process water is drawn from springs on the mountainside. In 1967, the distillery was commissioned by Mackinlay-Macpherson, a subsidiary of Scottish & Newcastle Breweries, primarily to provide Speyside-style malt spirit for the Mackinlay blend, one of the UK's top five best-selling products at the time. It was designed by William Delmé-Evans. The architect was Lothian Barclay, son of whisky entrepreneur James Barclay (see 'Strathisla' entry). The design was modern, efficient, and very much in the style of the 1960s. Mackinlay was sold to Invergordon Distillers in 1985, and GlenAllachie Distillery was mothballed and subsequently closed. In 1989, it was sold to Campbell Distillers under the Chivas Brothers banner and returned to production. Chivas Brothers became part of Pernod Ricard's distillery division in 2001. GlenAllachie's production capacity expanded from 3 million liters of pure alcohol to 4 million liters in the 2012-2013 fiscal year. To the astonishment of industry peers, in July 2017, Chivas Brothers announced it had sold the distillery to whisky legend Billy Walker—who had previously sold BenRiach, GlenDronach, and Glenglassaugh to Brown-Forman, parent company of the Jack Daniel's brand, for £285 million the year before (see respective entries). The distillery added 1 bottling hall and 2 new warehouses, bringing the total to 16 warehouses with capacity for 100,000 oak casks.

William Delmé Evans could be compared to Charles Doig, the greatest distillery architect of the late 19th century. After completing Tullibardine and Jura distilleries, he came to Glenallachie, which was his last project. He was an advocate for efficiency—he even marked the date of light bulb installations in the distillery to monitor their lifespan!