Lord Elpus on the Whisky Trail
Glen Affahr and Braevar
Glen Affahr and Braevar are fictional as are all the characters but the story of the excisemen and whisky is not.
The lonesome and treacherous Highland trails have been the
saviour and the demise of many a Scot. The sodden and rocky paths wind through
the hills and vanish in the gullies. They appear through the cairns and trail
off in the fog and while they often lead you home, they can easily lead you
astray.
In the year 1745, the many Highland trails that cut their way through the lands
were the lifeblood of Bonnie Prince Charlie, who had unsuccessfully led a
Jacobite rising against the Government.
With his army crushed on Culloden Moor he took flight and was sheltered
for over a year by the good will of the people that he had been fighting for.
Even with a £30,000 price on his head (a sum that would have made a Highland man
or woman rich beyond their wildest dreams) the good folks knew that to turn him
in would mean that they would not be welcome anymore in their Highland home. So
it was that he lived by the Highland trails, and was eventually able to escape
back to France.
At around the time that he was trekking the dour and foggy hills, the Scottish
nation was beginning to find itself a hearty liking for their whisky. This love
for the powerful dram also fostered a new industry, that of whisky smuggling –
and the men and women who turned to the smugglers trade used the Highland trails
to their advantage, and they defended them with their blood.
Tales of the hated Excise Man
To be the Excise man, the man who hunted down the illegal traders of whisky, was
to be the most hated man in Scotland. During a skirmish in Campbeltown, a region
renowned for illicit whisky production, George Arthur of the Excise was killed
by smugglers. In Strathglass an Excise officer also met his death, being thrown
down a 100 foot ravine after his horse was put to flight by smugglers intent on
keeping their loot. In Stirlingshire a mounted Excise man was to vanish
(presumed murdered by smugglers) as he patrolled the lonely Highland trails east
of Loch Lomond.
Malcom Gillespie was one man who took up a position as Excise officer, entering
the service of the Excise in 1799 at the ripe old age of 20. Not one to back
away from his duty, Gillespie one day found himself confronting a group of four
‘notorious and determined delinquents’ after he had maintained his duty and
seized their load of contraband (80 gallons of whisky).
The four set upon him and beat him to near death, only discharging his
pistol and wounding one of their horses caused them to flee – but Gillespie was
to never fully recover from this encounter. A year later, Gillespie was at it
again, and found himself locked in a fierce running battle with the notorious
smuggler by the name of Grants, who nearly decapitated him.
In 1818, Gillespie and his troop of hired help were confronted by no less than
12 smugglers. Captured, beaten and stripped of his sabre, Gillespie
managed to free himself and fired at the smugglers with a pistol he had managed
to conceal. He then attacked the rest and in the ensuing brawl ‘so savagely and
tenaciously’ bit the hand of one smuggler that the group fled into the hills
with his men firing in hot pursuit.
Following the Whisky Trail
Many an excise man learnt to follow the refuse trail, the bi-product of illegal
distillation, upstream in order to locate the concealed bothy or cave being
employed by the smugglers. Some smugglers went to great lengths to avoid
detection, diverting whole rivers in some instances to keep their den a secret.
The rise and rise of illegal whisky distillation
In the latter half of the 18th and early 19th century, the
illicit whisky trade in northern Scotland was an important part of the local
economic landscape. While over 1000 illegal stills were confiscated in 1782,
this figure represents only 1/20th of the total number of stills that
were believed to be in operation through the Highlands. One of the prime reasons
for the sudden and rapid growth in illegal distilling, and the smuggling trade
was that from around 1750 onward, ‘this drink of some regions in the north,
became increasingly acceptable to consumers elsewhere’.
According to Dr Devine, of Scotland’s Strathclyde University, ‘By the 1790s, Gin
and Brandy were no longer in much demand in the western Lowlands; whisky had
taken their place,’ and by 1800 whisky had become the principle drink of the
social elite – for one reason in particular its growing availability.
The other traditional drinks of Brandy and claret that usually entertained the
social hierarchy in Scotland were, around this period, also feeling the ills of
patriotic anti-French feeling. The Napoleonic Wars interrupted trade, creating
‘vastly inflated revenue demands’ on product prices and creating increased
incentive for Scots to cheat the system. As a result, according to Devine, an
opportunity was thus opened for a high quality Scottish spirit to capture the
Scottish market.
From around 1786 taxation on spirits was relative to the size of the still, and
licences to distil were issued on a ‘scale based on the potential production of
the unit’. The ‘Highland Line’ was also introduced in order to try and regulate
the whisky trade, and tried to restrict whisky from the north being transported
into the Lowland markets.
Taxes were also levied at the amount of malt used in the distillation
process and as a result of this, in an attempt to lower their costs, many
registered producers sought to introduce large amounts of un-malted raw
grain into the production process. While this was certainly cost-effective, the
converse effect was a sharp deterioration in quality.
The illegal distiller bore none of these costs, and could thus make a dram more
approachable in taste. In 1798, an innkeeper in Perthshire noted that ‘his
customers were happy to pay double for illicit spirit rather than imbibe the increasingly
unpalatable but legal product, which did not agree with their stomachs’.
There is also evidence from the 19th century that suggests illegal
‘northern’ whisky was fetching higher prices than that of legally distilled
whisky on the Lowland’s markets – proving that certain consumer groups were
happy to pay for quality.
The growth of the illegal industry can be measured against the rapid reduction
in licences issued throughout Scotland. For example between 1797-1817 there were
no distilling licences issued in Campbeltown, yet there were hundreds of illegal
stills known to be operating in the Kintrye region. Illicit stills were also
found to be in operation on the sites of current distilleries such as;
Cragganmore, Ardbeg and Lagavulin, to mention just a few.
In 1828 Major General Stewart of Garth had commented that; “In smuggling, there
is a spirit of adventure and hazard which has a charm for the minds of the
peasantry – a sense of fraternity is produced among them by sharing a common
danger”. It is true that the bands of countrymen involved in illegal whisky
production certainly would have felt a common link to one another and worked
hard for their common trade; however whether it was a trade they pursued because
of ‘the charm of hazard’ is another matter.
Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, the general life
and existence of the Scots was harsh and cast with poverty – illegal
distillation gave them an opportunity to beat the odds and a number of smugglers
were able to retire to country estates and live out their life in relative
luxury as a result of their illegal occupation.
A healthy breakfast tipple…
By 1760 whisky was being consumed at breakfast by the upper and middle classes,
and was beginning to challenge other more fashionable spirits as a after-dinner
drink.
By 1800 the spirit was a regular in the punch bowl that according to Steve
Sillet; ‘it was being introduced into the punch-bowl at the rate of half a pint
per head’ – although gin and brandy were still preferred at gatherings and farm
feasts.