The story behind the Isle of Tiree’s first legal distillery in over 200 years
Rosalind Erskine on how a ceilidh band, music festival, London distillery and Speyside casks together created Tiree’s first distillery
Tiree Whisky Company cofounder Ian Smith tells the story with a laugh: “Our distillery is the first legal distillery since 1801. In 1802 the Duke of Argyll actually banned distilling on the island because according to the accounts some of the islanders were ‘lacking morals and were idle because of their fondness and intemperance’. ”
It was this link to distilling, coupled with a desire to give back to the community, that led Ian and business partner Alain Campbell to launch their spirits company.
Usually seen playing the accordion in the folk band Trail West, Ian moved back to Tiree last year, having spent about eight years in Glasgow, and it was this move that got him thinking of the future.
“Myself and my business partner are very into the local history – we love reading the island’s written historical accounts and one of the things I discovered was that between 1790 and 1791 there were 157 people caught distilling illegally – and one in every ten was evicted from their croft or holding. We thought this history was fascinating – there were hundreds of years of history of whisky production on the island – and we thought, why has nobody tried to revive that?”
So, in a bid to resurrect that rich
distilling history, The Tiree Whisky Company launched The Cairnsmuir – a 19-year-old Speyside malt named after a ship that ran aground off the shores of the island in a story similar to Whisky Galore.
Launched at the Tiree Homecoming, with all 230 bottles selling out, the whisky was designed to publicise the company and let people know what the pair were doing.
The next step in their journey was to launch a gin, which at first was contract distilled in London using botanicals from the island. While many people argue about provenance of Scottish gin in relation to where it is created, Ian used the money raised to open a distillery on the island, on the site of his dad’s former builder’s yard.
Ian said: “Thames Distillers in London distilled our Tyree Gin for about 18 months and, although it wasn’t made on the island, we used local botanicals, dried the way that kelpers who were collecting seaweed used to dry them – on rocks, dried naturally by the sun.”
It’s this mix of botanicals that give Tyree Gin – note the spelling – its unique, seaside flavour.
“Tyree was a historical form of spelling for the island while the modern spelling of Tiree first appeared on a map of Scotland by John & Frederic Tallis in 1851. We launched the gin at the 2017 Tiree Music Festival and sold out, about 1,000 bottles. It was brilliant.”
This link with the music festival continued this year, with the bars serving Tiree gin and launching an exclusive bottling of TMF10 whisky – created with the organisers to mark the festival’s tenth year.
“We decided to source a cask from Speyside, and the whisky went into cask around the same time as plans for the first ever Tiree Music Festival were taking shape. Now, ten years on, about 380 bottles are available to celebrate the milestone. We’ve got a good team of friends who tried it – even some famous musicians, such as Ian Bayne from Runrig.”
He added: “It really is an honour for us to be asked to do something to commemorate the anniversary. ”
As the first legal distillery on the island for more than 200 years, and with so many links to the history of Tiree, what does the future hold? With gin sales going well, Ian and The Tiree Whisky Company hope to produce their own whisky soon, and will base it on Speyside malts because of their lack of peat.
“We are proud islanders and think Tiree is a great place. We want to give back to the community and provide employment opportunities, but also, through our gin and whisky, make the island known throughout the UK and rest of the world.”