Western Isles produces its first legal whisky

Image caption, The whisky has been launched at the start of Gaelic's Royal National Mod

14 October 2011

The first single malt whisky to be legally distilled on the Western Isles has been made available in a limited run of 2,011 bottles.

The three-year-old whisky was made in a former illicit still at Abhainn Dearg Distillery in Uig, on Lewis.

Mark Tayburn got permission to use the still under a licence granted by the HM Revenue and Customs in November 2008.

Leftover malt barley mash from the whisky making process is fed to the distillery's Highland cow herd.

The cows' dung is to be used as fertiliser for local barley crops which could eventually supply the distillery, rather than buying in grain from elsewhere.

The single malt has been launched to coincide with the start of Gaelic's Royal National Mod in Stornoway.

Mr Tayburn said: "We are delighted to launch this special whisky and finally reclaim the heritage of whisky making in the Isle of Lewis which stretches back hundreds of years."

Western Isles SNP MSP, Alasdair Allan, said the new whisky could be good for the islands' economy.

"Perhaps one of the more interesting constituency cases I have ever had was when I had to persuade HM Revenues and Customs to overcome their suspicion about one of Mr Tayburn's stills which had a colourful past under previous ownership," he said.

"In fact, it now provides his distillery with something unique in Scotland - legal whisky made in a formerly illicit still."

Whisky was illicitly produced across the Highlands and Islands until distilling was legalised by the Excise Act of 1823.

In 2006, whisky distillers at Glenlivet recreated history by legally using a former illicit still and the same methods as illicit distillers once employed in Banffshire.