EARLY DAYS OF DISTILLING

Barley of one variety or another has been grown as a crop here for nearly 6000 years but it is not until comparatively recently that there is recorded evidence for distilling. Nevertheless, it cannot be doubted that whisky was being produced in Scotland long before 1494 when King James IV instructed that 8 bolls of malt should be given to a friar, called John Cor, for the making of 'aqua vitae'. Until the 19th century there was often no clear distinction between 'brewer' and 'distiller' in the present understanding of the terms. The absence of many late Medieval or early Modern references to distillation in Scotland has led to the suggestion that the technology for the production of whisky was late to arrive in Scotland and may even have been imported from Ireland in the 16th Century.

Whisky was probably being produced for private or local consumption throughout Scotland in the later Middle Ages, very much on a 'home-brew' basis. The first direct evidence for the making of whisky in the country round about Tain is in c1640 - an inventory of goods from a will recorded in the burgh referred to 'ane aquavitie celler (spirit stand) with ye glesses.....ane aquavitie pott with the graith ane brewing panne...three aquavitie rubbures'.

In 1641 the will of John Denoon, merchant burgess of Tain, recorded his possession of a spirit stand and five glasses valued at £4.

In 1644 Cromwell's administration imposed a Malt Tax in Scotland. It was an unpopular piece of legislation and was incredibly difficult to collect. The tax remained in force until 1707 when, by the Act of Union, it was lifted from Scotland at least for the duration of the War of the Spanish Succession which was then raging in Europe. There is reference in 1681 to the prevalence of avoidance of Malt Duty in Tain. In 1663 the council had gone so far as to ban the purchase by burgesses of malt and 'aquavytie' from the Highland parishes west of Tain, as this was causing a loss to the burgh customs, as well as to the Exchequer. The popularity of whisky had increased to the level where the local production in Tain could not keep up with the demand.

Every social event called for whisky to be provided, and throughout the 18th and into the 19th century, we find a number of recipes for whisky punches and liqueurs for use at parties by the gentry. In 1698, amongst the expenses for the funeral in Tain of Thomas Simson were the procurement of four gallons of ale and half a gallon of whisky. Other individuals were continuing to produce whisky for their own consumption - perhaps in an effort to avoid the duty imposed by the government. This is perhaps the case with the first evidence for whisky production concerned with the owners of Morangie, where George Ross of Morangie, great-grandson of Thomas the Abbot, is shown in the inventory of goods appended to his will of 1703 to have possessed an 'aquavitie pott with its ffleake and stand' in a room at his house of Inverbreakie (now Invergordon) which appears to have doubled as a bed-chamber.

THE STORY OF GLENMORANGIE MALT WHISKY DISTILLING Introduction Chronology of Distilling The Early Days of Distilling Illicit Whisky Distilling STORIES AROUND THE DISTILLERY Introduction The Ancient Burgh The Immortal Walter Scott The White Lady GLENMORANGIE DISTILLERY Introduction Early Days at Glenmorangie Enmeshed in the local rural framework A comfortable little backwater Maltbarns into makeshift barracks New owners and the Roaring Twenties A return to older ways Progress has some advantages THE HISTORY OF THE AREA Introduction Earliest Times The Dark Ages Ross in the Middle Ages The Wars of Independence The Church of St Duthac at Tain The Reformation/Ross of Morangie

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