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Elchies, Laird of
Charles Grant of Wester Elchies (1788-1828)
was the founder of "modern" Aberlour. He shared the
ambition of other Highland landowners to introduce commerce and
industry to the region, and to improve generally the life of its
inhabitants. In 1812, as Laird of Elchies, he laid out an area
of 100 two-acre plots (or feus) along the banks of the Spey, starting
on the east side of the River Lour. These were rented out on generous
terms to local people, who built cottages with stones taken from
the bed of the River Spey. In the centre of his new town - called
Charlestown of Aberlour, after his son - the Laird mapped out
a spacious high street and square, around which he erected two
public halls and an inn.
In 1814 Charlestown of Aberlour was elevated to
burgh status, along with which came the right to stage its own
market. The population grew rapidly to just over 500. Thomas Telford's
new bridge at Craigellachie opened up the Moray side of the Spey.
Aberlour was on its way. Charles Grant, however, did not live
long enough to see its development. He died in 1828, at the age
of 40, on the Isle of Wight - a long way from his Highland dream
of Charlestown of Aberlour.
Elgin
Some 10 miles to the north of Aberlour, Elgin
is the administrative centre of the Moray region. Named after
Helgyn, the Norse general who founded it in the 10th century,
Elgin is both a royal burgh and a city. Its 13th-century cathedral
was largely destroyed by fire in 1270. Extensively rebuilt, the
cathedral survived until 1390 when it was razed to the ground
by the Earl of Buchan, known as the Wolf of Badenoch, in a vendetta
with the residing Bishop of Moray. Restored once again in the
15th century, it was a case of third time unlucky for the cathedral,
which was vandalised during the Reformation and eventually fell
into ruin. Elgin Castle is another of the city's notable ruins,
not least because it is reputed to be the place where Macbeth
murdered King Duncan.
Excise Act, 1823
The 1823 Act heralded the end of illicit distilling,
though it took many more years to eliminate it completely. By
significantly lowering the duty on whisky and making it legal
to use stills of as little as 40 gallons capacity (as opposed
to the previous minimum of 500 gallons), the Act enabled small
distillers to operate legally. It was the fourth Duke of Gordon,
a Highland landowner of immense wealth and influence, who pioneered
the legislation. He wisely understood that there was no other
way of solving the illegal production of whisky, which had seen
the discovery of 14,000 illicit stills in 1823 alone - and that
was just the tip of the iceberg. Slowly but surely the whisky
industry came out of hiding, paving the way for men of vision
like James Fleming of Aberlour
Excisemen
It was the thankless task of the excisemen
- or "gaugers", as they were called - to track down
illicit stills and apprehend the distillers and smugglers who
trafficked in illegal whisky. Most of these were to be found (if
found at all) in the difficult terrain of the Highlands - Ben
Rinnes, for example, was a notorious haunt of whisky smugglers
- unfamiliar territory to most excisemen, many of whom came from
the Lowlands or, worse still, England.
Excisemen were hated by just about everyone
and received little or no help from the community. On the one
hand, there was the plentiful supply of cheap whisky from illicit
stills; on the other, the punitive whisky taxes imposed by the
despised Sassenachs. It was no contest. Smugglers were aided and
abetted, the pursuing excisemen hindered or misled. Signals would
be sent from hilltop to hilltop alerting distillers to the approaching
excisemen and giving them time to conceal the evidence of their
illegal activity. Although thousands of stills were discovered
and destroyed, and many perpetrators fined or imprisoned, thousands
more carried on undetected. By the middle of the 19th century,
however, illicit distilling had virtually dried up, and the much-relieved
excisemen had time for a dram or two themselves.
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