Islay's Rich Whisky History

Earlier I wrote about the lost distilleries on Islay and there have been quite a few. Names like the Lochindaal distillery, Mulindry, Octomore, Port Ellen, Ardmore and Tallant spring to mind when writing about Islay's rich whisky distilling history. In the early days, distilling was carried out openly in black shebeens until the introduction, in 1644, of the Excise Act when a tax was levied on whisky. This forced the distillers to move into the remote glens and caves to avoid detection, but in fact the first Gauger did not dare to set foot on Islay until 1797. There was great reluctance on the part of the exciseman to come to an island where the natives were regarded as a "wild barbarous people". Most of the illicit distilling took place on the Oa peninsula in those days, in places like Lower Killeyan and Cragabus. In 1777 Reverend John McLeish of Kilchoman Parish said the following, "The quantity of whisky made on Islay is very great and the evil that follows drinking to excess of this liquor, is very visible on the island". Nowadays you can find an illicit still displayed in the Islay Museum which is a reminder of the rich whisky distiling history on Islay.

Back to Islay's lost distilleries. The Malt Mill Distillery was established 1908 and when Sir Peter Mackie lost his bitter legal dispute to retain the sales agency for Laphroaig whisky in 1907 he reacted in characteristic style by deciding to make his own "Laphroaig" type whisky, and in 1908 built a tradition small pot-still distillery within the Lagavulin complex. Despite hiring staff from Laphroaig and attempting to copy the Laphroaig recipe, it did not succeed, perhaps because it used a different water source. Malt Mill tried to replicate a traditional style of Islay Whisky, using only peat-dried malt, and it is reputed to have had heather added to the mash. It was always a small scale operation producing 25,000 gallons of proof spirit (113,500 litres) in its first year, compared with 128,000 gallons (581,120 litres) at Lagavulin. What is perhaps surprising is that it survived until 1962 when it was merged with Lagavulin and its coal-fired stills moved to the latter's still house for another seven years use. The Malt Mill distillery building is now the reception centre within the Lagavulin Distillery site.

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