INTO THE ARCHIVES: History of Ross-shire steeped in whisky as fascinating documents reveal

The history of the Highlands is steeped in whisky. In the Munro of Novar accounts of 1792 there is a note of supplying whisky to workers making hay. One of countless instances that uisge beatha features in the archives.

In the 17th century the lands of Ferintosh, owned by the Government supporting Forbes family, were laid to waste by rebels. As compensation Forbes was granted permission to distil whisky without having to pay duty. This became known as the Ferintosh ‘privilege’ and in 1760 it was noted that two-thirds of legal whisky production in Scotland came from Ferintosh distilleries. A century of industrial whisky production in the area came to an end in 1784 when the ‘privilege’ was rescinded, lamented by Robert Burns in the poem, Scotch Drink.

Acts introduced in the 1780s changed the landscape for distillers. Most significantly small stills were banned and the tax on malt increased.These changes pushed distilling further underground, and the illicit whisky trade flourished.

‘Your Petitioner has Poverty, Poverty, Poverty, bad health, which is legible in his countenance a throng and weak family, without a Horse or a Cow, a Calf or a Sow, a Cart or a Plough for Supporting them, and is Situated, in a Barren, Bane Rough Ragged Rugged Moor, without one Inch of Arable ground, where he built a House last year.’

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One document in the archives L/INV/JC/9/37 tells of an incident at Tore in 1816 where an Excise Officer from Arpafeelie, named Robert Reikie, on his way to check out an illicit still in Tore, was met by the tenant of Croftcrunie, Alexander Gray, who proceeded to restrain him. While the officer tried to free himself, a tussle ensued. He called out for assistance but the workers in the fields ignored his calls, and ‘Gray struck him many severe Blows with his fists, and tore his coat and waistcoat off his back’. The still was eventually uncovered and destroyed by the officer, however Alexander Gray was said to have fled and be ‘skulking’ to avoid imprisonment.

Another account L/INV/HC/9/39 described the events of a seizure of two casks of whisky found in Aultgowrie, belonging to John Mackenzie. The officers took the casks back to their lodgings in Muir of Ord for safekeeping. In the middle of the night, they were awoken by a group trying to break in and retrieve the whisky. Large stones were hurled through the windows, and one officer was injured, but when the other officer brought out his pistol and started firing the mob cleared.

In 1816, the Commissioners of Supply for Cromarty voiced concerns of the illegal trade of whisky, ‘a practice which has now attained so alarming a height’. They proposed dropping taxes and removing restrictions to make legal distillation more competitive. It wasn’t until the 1820s that it was made more affordable to run a licensed distillery when they greatly reduced tax. This saw the emergence of hundreds of legal distilleries around the country, illicit distilling faded away.

There is one document in our collections that reflects a different light on illicit distilling. In 1814, Alexander Mackenzie in Newton of Ferintosh, who had been caught with a stash of whisky, had his circumstances described to plead for mercy. ‘Your Petitioner has Poverty, Poverty, Poverty, bad health, which is legible in his countenance a throng and weak family, without a Horse or a Cow, a Calf or a Sow, a Cart or a Plough for Supporting them, and is Situated, in a Barren, Bane Rough Ragged Rugged Moor, without one Inch of Arable ground, where he built a House last year.’ It continues to reveal he had recently lost three children and his wife to smallpox, a desperate situation which money from the sale of whisky might have alleviated somewhat.

With thanks to High Life Highland Highland Archive Centre.

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