Visit estate where whisky’s still secret
DID you know that 41 bottles of whisky are shipped around the world every second?
The fiery golden liquid is truly one of Scotland’s greatest creations. But this beloved national drink has a murky history going back 500 years – involving smuggling, secret distilleries, and a famous tax collector turned poet...
The first record of whisky in Scotland dates all the way back to 1494. An entry in the Exchequer Rolls reads: ‘Eight bolls of malt to Friar John Cor wherewith to make aqua vitae.’
‘Aqua vitae’ is Latin for ‘water of life’. In Scots Gaelic this translates as uisge beatha – which eventually became the modern word ‘whisky’.
However, taxes on this spirit led to a spate of illicit distilling and smuggling, which was common for the following 150 years. This led to a campaign by taxmen to catch the secret whisky makers – and one such taxman was our own national bard – Robert Burns!
Burns truly loved whisky – as we can see in his famous poem Scotch Drink, which begins:
Gie him strong drink until he wink,
That’s sinking in despair;
An’ liquor guid to fire his bluid, That’s prest wi’ grief and care: There let him bowse, an’ deep carouse,
Wi’ bumpers flowing o’er,
Till he forgets his loves or debts,
An’ minds his griefs no more. The National Trust for Scotland has teamed up with The Glenlivet to look for evidence of these secret whisky stills at Mar Lodge Estate. There are eight known sites on the estate where whisky was being made covertly – which shows just how common this practice was.
Records indicate that around 300,000 gallons were smuggled into England in 1787 alone.
Together the Trust and The Glenlivet are investigating how the making, smuggling and drinking of this illicit liquor shaped the life of the people who lived on Mar Lodge Estate.
Dr Daniel Rhodes is leading an archaeological investigation to see if any more secret whisky bothies can be discovered, who was producing this whisky and how it was transported around the region.
Eventually, in 1823 a new Excise Act was passed, which allowed the distilling of whisky in return for a small licence fee. This meant that many illicit producers could finally make an honest living from making their ‘water of life’.
In fact, the first licensed distillery under the new act was the Trust’s partner in this project – The Glenlivet!
The archaeology team have finished the first phase of fieldwork at Mar Lodge Estate.
Once they’ve recorded the findings about the secret stills, they will transform the photographs into 3D computer models to better understand their locations.
It is hoped this work will help us to better understand how a few secret bothies transformed into the multibillion-pound industry that brings such life and joy to Scotland today.
Visit Mar Lodge Estate yourself to walk through the glorious countryside. As well as spotting wildlife you can imagine what life would have been like for the whisky-makers hiding in the heather as they worked their secret stills.
We’re excited to welcome you to Mar Lodge Estate in the heart of the Cairngorms National Park, near Braemar.
Plan your visit via our website www.nts.org.uk