THE SOCIAL WORLD OF ILLICIT DISTILLING

South Loch Ness Heritage Group spring talk

Presentation by Darroch Bratt on The history of Whisky Distilling in the Highlands of Scotland.

On the evening of 1^st May 2025 , in Stratherrick Hall an audience of approximately 38 were educated and entertained by Darroch using slides and talk to illustrate the history of whisky distilling from the earlies recorded sources, in the mid1400s right through till the 1890s when the excise act was then in place.

Darroch revealed that he is an archaeologist who found an interest in finding and excavating small, hidden stills, generally known as “illicit stills”, but not always so. These became more numerous after the agricultural “improvements” in the early 1800s when large areas of what had been common grazing were cleared of estate tenants to make way for sheep.

The reasons for the growth in what had been a small manufacture, mainly for home production were two fold. The displaced tenants needed to find a way of earning some money. A blind eye very often being turned by the landlord as it enabled the rent to be paid. The empty hills and straths, which were well known to the original tenants, provided an ideal place to work without undue chance of disturbance.

The style of still varied from very simple, almost outdoors, to more sophisticated, in an abandoned sheiling or cottage. Very often one pot and worm would be rotated around several stills as the mash was ready for distilling. In the Highlands malted barley was the predominant source of the alcohol.

The social life which surrounded these enterprises was also discussed. This covered the distillers themselves, women, and men dressed as women to avoid identification, excise men and their hired muscle and the essential smugglers who got the “uisge-beatha” to thirsty customers.