It’s a dram shame that some of these distilleries are now lost
In this extract from a book tracing Scotland’s secret history of the illicit distilling and smuggling of whisky, Brian Townsend tells the story of those whose full share is now with the angels
Fior every distillery operating in Scotland today, countless others, legal and illegal, have vanished over the years. From the 17th to the 19th centuries, thousands of tiny distilleries were established, flourished and waned. For every one that was legal and registered, many more were not. As such, the precise number is not known.
Illegal distilling was spurred on by taxation, in the form of Excise Duty, which was first introduced in the 1640s. After the union of the Scottish and English parliaments in 1707, the department of customs and excise was created to collect the tax, using the dreaded excisemen or gaugers – a key aspect of whose work involved hunting down illicit distillers and smugglers. During the following years parliament increased taxes on distilling – thereby driving many legal distillers either to ruin or to become illegal. In addition to which, chronic shortages of barley, caused by the bad harvests of the 1790s, riots and widespread public unrest, and the Napoleonic Wars, which created further shortages and havoc, resulted in scores of distilleries in Scotland and Ireland closing down.
Salvation came in the form of two government acts that, in hindsight, could be said to have spawned Scotland’s modern whisky industry. The first was the 1823 Excise Act, which halved spirit duty, set a 40-gallon-minimum still size (too big to be easily hidden or for one man to carry on his shoulders) and an affordable £10 licence fee – which led to dozens of illegal distillers turning legit. This was followed in 1846 by the repeal of the import-stifling Corn Laws, which enabled distillers to obtain at low cost barley, wheat and maize – the new starchrich grain from North America – in world markets.
Add to this the effect of the Industrial Revolution, the mushroom growth of railways and an expanding customer base, and all the building blocks were in place for the beginning of the Scotch whisky industry to begin its 75-year-long first Golden Age.
Then the dark times began: a high-profile blender, Pattisons of Leith, went bust, badly denting industry finances and confidence. Under pressure from the temperance movement, Chancellor David Lloyd George nearly doubled the Spirit Duty in 1909. The coming of the First World War closed down almost all of Scotland’s malt distilleries, as barley was needed elsewhere to support the war effort. Any hope of their revival was blighted when America, the top export market, declared Prohibition in 1920.
In addition to this, UK Excise Duty continued to rise, with the result that between 1908 and 1922 the bottle price rose from two shillings (10p) to more than 12 shillings (60p). Further misery ensued with the General Strike, the Wall Street Crash and the Great Depression – as a consequence of which the industry went into meltdown. It has been estimated that in 1890 Scotland boasted some 150 distilleries. For a few nadir months in 1933, only eight were still operating. While some reopened in the late 1930s and after the Second World War, many did not.
Ireland fared even worse. On top of the woes that afflicted Scotland, after 1922 the independent Irish Free State lost its main market, Britain. In turn, the tally of its distilleries shrank, from around 30 to at one point just two. However, its fortunes have now revived.
With a few exceptions, the loss of Scotland’s distilleries falls into four phases: the period around 1800; the decades following 1820 and the stampede into legal distilling during which the weakest failed; the darkest period from 1900 to the early 1930s, when the effect of the temperance movement, punitive taxation, US Prohibition and the Great Depression brought the industry to its knees; and in more recent times, the 1980s, when overproduction, low demand and poor management led to the closure of some two dozen distilleries. As a result, there is no corner of Scotland that does not lament the loss of a handful of – or, in the case of Campbeltown, 20 – distilleries, casualties of the shifting fortunes of the whisky industry.
The east and North-east of Scotland have suffered disproportionately, the exception being Speyside, which since 1945 has seen its distillery flock grow and prosper.
Angus (including formally Kincardineshire), Banffshire and especially Aberdeenshire saw a spate of losses in all four periods, particularly between 1830 and 1850, when a swathe of distilleries folded. Most were small, under-capitalised and – until the law allowed limited liability companies – many were deeply prone to sequestration whenever a bad harvest, slow payments or distillation problems hit their cash flow. Records show that at the end of the 18th century there were 14 distilleries in and around Huntly. Within a few years, virtually all had folded.
Aberdeen boasted a stack of distilleries at one time or another, including Rubislaw, Don Bridge, South Bridge, Stoneytown, Broadford, Denburn, Gilcomston, Greenhaugh and Union Glen, all of which closed during the 19th century. Three others survived into the 20th century – Bon Accord, Devanha and Strathdee – the former two closing before the First World War, Strathdee by the Second. Many tiny rural distilleries in the North-east came and went in the 19th century, including three in the remote and notorious illicit distilling area of the Cabrach: Tomnaven, Lesmurdie (aka Cabrach), and the curiously named Black Middens, or the Buck. Even historic Corgarff Castle on Donside briefly housed a distillery in 1826, as did at one time or another localities as varied as Aberdour, Portsoy, Monymusk, Monquhitter, New Byth, Longside, Fraserburgh, Rhynie, Peterhead, Inverurie and Muckle Wartle.
A particularly sad loss was Jericho, near Insch, which closed around 1915. Its whisky was sold as Benachie (with one ‘n’), a brand successfully re-launched in the 1990s. Another brand to be resurrected is Black Bull, a blend first produced by George Willsher of Dundee, using malt from the Glen Coull distillery at Justinhaugh. Glen Coull closed around 1929, but the name Black Bull has been revived by Duncan Taylor of Huntly as a deluxe blend aged 12, 18 and 40 years.
The area’s losses in the 1980s and 1990s included North Port in Brechin, Lochside and Hillside/glenesk at Montrose, Glenury Royal at Stonehaven, Glenugie near Peterhead and lastly Banff, which survived a Luftwaffe bombing in 1941. However, two distilleries that spent years in mothballs – Glen Garioch and Glenglassaugh, with its aptly named Revival malt – are
“There is no corner of Scotland that does not lament the loss of a handful of – or, in the case of Campbeltown, 20 – distilleries”
thankfully now thriving again, along with a number of other east coast distilleries, including Glencadam at Brechin, Fettercairn, Royal Lochnagar, Glen Deveron/macduff, An Cnoc and Glendronach, all of which are doing well.
Despite the North-east losing many of its distilleries, one can truly say the future of those that have survived looks assured.
● Scotland’s Secret History: The Illicit Distilling and Smuggling of Whisky by Charles Maclean and Daniel Maccannell, edited by Marc Ellington is published by Birlinn, at £14.99