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Illicit Distillers
Crippling taxes on whisky in the 17th and 18th
centuries drove thousands of Scottish farmers and crofters into
the business of illicit distilling. For centuries, whisky-making
had been a natural adjunct to farming, with locally produced barley,
peat on the hills and moors, and an endless supply of pure mountain
water. But the government's taxes priced whisky beyond the reach
of many people, and the little (but essential) extra revenue that
farmers made from the activity quickly dried up. So, almost overnight,
an entire cottage industry took to the hills. At its peak, there
were tens of thousands of illicit stills in operation. Many were
deliberately located in dangerous or inaccessible places to deter
the excisemen. There were ingenious methods of concealment –
the copper still, for example, often being "stored"
on a riverbed, which had the additional benefit of keeping it
clean. Other stills were designed to be portable and could swiftly
be moved from place to place. Smoke from peat fires sometimes
gave the game away, but for every still the excisemen destroyed,
ten sprung up elsewhere. Whisky was moved at night along tracks
known to the distillers and smugglers but unfamiliar to the law
officers. Highland ponies called "garrons" carried sacks
of barley and contraband whisky, sure-footed on the slippery slopes.
The English Parliament came to its senses in 1823 and changed
the law on distilling. One by one, and in their thousands, the
illicit distillers came in from the cold. See
Excise Act and Excise Act.
Iona
The Hebridean island of Iona, off the west
coast of Scotland, is just three miles long and never more than
one and a half miles wide. It was from here that St Columcille
(Columba) launched his Christian crusade to the Scottish mainland
in the 6th century, accompanied by St Drostan and eleven other
monks. The monastery that Columcille built on the island was destroyed
many centuries ago, but the saint's cell, together with the stone
slab on which he slept, has been excavated. Three of the 360 stone
Celtic crosses that once stood on the island have also survived.
No less than 60 kings (including eight Norwegian) are buried on
the island, the legendary Macbeth among them. See Columcille.
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