Uig to produce first legal dram for 170 years, just in time for Whisky Olympics

Published on Tuesday 9 February 2010 22:01

A NEW competitor is in the running to make an impact at the "Whisky Olympics" next year.

• Marko Tayburn and Margaret MacLeod at the Abhainn Dearg Distillery in Uig – it is hoped the first bottles of Scotch will start rolling off the production line in 2011

Production is being stepped up at a distillery near Uig, on the west coast of Lewis, to launch in 2011, nearly 170 years after the last legal still in the Outer Hebrides shut.

Island businessman Marko Tayburn has set up Abhainn Dearg Distillery (Red River in Gaelic) on the site of a former salmon hatchery.

Casking began in 2008 and, as the product cannot be called Scotch until it has been matured in a cask for three years in Scotland, it is hoped the first bottles of single malt will be ready when the Royal National Mod, known as the Whisky Olympics, returns to Stornoway.

Over the coming year, Mr Tayburn aims to double production and increase the quantity of island-grown barley that it uses. He said: "The Western Isles is a very resourceful area, with many different products being made using high-quality methods.

• Charles MacLean: It's all in the wood: casks will make or break new challenger

"I had felt for a long time that there was an opportunity to make our own whisky and to do it in a traditional way, from field to bottle.

"Last year, about 10 per cent of our grain was grown on Lewis. We have had significant interest from local crofters and I hope that figure will grow this year. I also plan to double our production levels."

The distillery is working with Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) to create a growth plan and build on the worldwide interest the unique dram is already creating. Mr Tayburn has also worked with Scottish Development International to look at global markets.

HIE's Margaret MacLeod said: "Marko has a true entrepreneurial spirit and his reintroduction of a distillery to the islands is an exciting project in many ways.

"There will be more benefits to local communities in terms of employment and already the distillery has increased visitor numbers to the islands.

"As the business aspires to achieve 'field to bottle' malt whisky, Abhainn Dearg has put Uig, and the Outer Hebrides, on the international whisky map."

Mr Tayburn has based his distillery on an illicit still working on the islands until the 1950s, only on a bigger scale. It uses copper stills and American oak bourbon barrels.

Distilling of spirits in the Western Isles is recorded in the 16th century and the Gaelic writer Martin Martin mentions three types of spirts in his Description of the Western Islands of Scotland in 1703.

Stewart Mackenzie of Seaforth bought Lewis, excluding Stornoway, in 1825 and built a distillery which was made legal by the Excise Act of 1823. It opened around 1830 but, in 1844, after buying Lewis, Sir James Matheson, an abstainer and prohibitionist, demolished the distillery and built Lews Castle on the site.