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Diluain, 01/Apr/2013

Ancient Illicit Distillery Discovered on Islay

Islay Whisky News & Links in stencil

This morning a friend of mine returned from an overnight Easter hike in the north of Islay with some interesting news for the whisky buffs. In a previously undiscovered cave in the steep cliffs he has found an ancient illicit still, there are even some bottles of the ancient whisky I understand! From his description I believe the cave with the distillery to be approximately here:

Picture of a coast with steep cliffs and raised beaches, an arrow pointing to a location

Unfortunately no further pictures yet, my friend is kind of ‘old fashioned’ and still uses an old still film camera. As soon as the pictures have been printed he will send me some to scan and post them. Apparently the still looked similar to the Illicit Still in the Museum of Islay Life, of course the wood has since rotted away and some of the metal is badly corroded. He's also going to send me a sample from one of the bottles he took home and is now keeping in a safe place. During his overnight camp he couldn't resist a first taste of the whisky. He said it tastes rather rough, not surprising considering the very basic methods they employed out there.

This raises a few interesting questions for the historians: Who were the distillers hiding out there, were they from Bolsa or further away? When were they operating and who did they supply with whisky?

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