Ron uncovers the secrets of his family’s famous whisky past
Corrie resident Ron Stein is a firm believer in the health and vitality benefits of a daily whisky and ginger drink and, to his surprise, he recently discovered that his family played an instrumental role in establishing the commercial whisky industry in Scotland.
The only inkling that he had was about 65 years ago when he, aged 10, overheard a couple of aunts talking after a visit to the Fife/Kinross area when they mentioned their forebears distillery.
It was after receiving an online subscription to a family tree website that Ron started to piece together the amazing history of his ancestors and their involvement in a piece of Scottish whisky and industrial history which has gone largely unnoticed.
It transpires that the Stein family were actually the fathers of commercial distilling in Scotland, having revolutionised the Scottish whisky industry and taking it from small-scale individual production to commercial success.
It is believed that a distant relation, Andrew Stein, established a commercial distillery at Kennetpans, Alloa, around 1720. Rapidly growing to be the largest distillery in Scotland, the Stein family expanded their operations to Ireland, establishing the now famous Bow Street Distillery of Jameson fame in 1780 and purchasing the Dublin distillery in Marrowbone Lane which have since both developed into massive organisations.
A further relation of the Stein family continued to expand on the family business by establishing a large distillery at Kilbagie – one mile away from Kennetpans Distillery – along with another at St Andrews, where the Kincaple Distillery was established.
The Steins utilised modern technology, for its time, and increased production to a scale never before seen in Scotland.
While much of the details of the Stein family’s involvement in the production of whisky in Scotland has been overlooked, the purchasers of the old distillery buildings at Kennetpans conducted three years of research and unearthed a wealth of details on the distillery and the Stein family involvement. Their findings are available to see at ww.kennetpans.info.
With such vast enterprises requiring large amounts of raw materials and established infrastructure for distribution, the Steins commissioned large-scale engineering projects to build roads, canals and tramways, possibly using the first horse-drawn railway in Scotland and later using the first Boulton Watt steam engine in Scotland.
In another first, they built a canal between the two first distilleries, Kennetpans and Kilbagie. They also used their own fleet of ships to transport spirits to London for the gin trade.
The exploits and accomplishments of the Stein family are too numerous to mention but some interesting discoveries include that Robert Burns was a regular visitor to Kennetpans and a Katie Stein, or Stevin, was apparently his inspiration for Tam o’ Shanter. Another branch of the family went into brick-making and supplied the bricks for Gleneagles Hotel.
An odd twist in the story is that a Mr John Jameson, of the Irish whiskey fame, had a son, a lawyer who was involved with the sequestration of the Stein dynasty when their luck eventually ran out. By 1856, after establishing and dominating the commercial whisky industry, the Steins, through various dealings, misfortune and even some questionable practices, were no longer involved in the industry.
Their hard work in the early days of modern distilling laid the foundations for the Haig brand and Jameson’s, as well as Europe’s largest spirit distillery, Cameronbridge.
Ron Stein rounded off the interesting story of his ancestors by saying: ‘It is a pity to not be involved in what is a £4.5 billion industry but it certainly makes for an interesting read. One of these days I may get over to view the old distillery ruins.’