Exploring the archaeology and history of Glenlivet whisky

Whisky business

The reservoirs played a crucial role because water was essential not just for powering production but also as a vital ingredient in whisky-making. It was used to soak barley for malting, in the mash to create wort for fermentation into a weak beer, and to cool the evaporated alcohol in the stills, turning steam back into liquid. The more water available, the more whisky could be produced. In the late 1850s, George Smith built a new distillery at Minmore to access more streams and springs, boosting his production. This site is still in operation today, and Smith’s decision was wise. Initially, the Upper Drumin distillery produced 50 gallons (227 litres) per week in 1824, which increased to 100 gallons by 1826 and 200 gallons by 1839. After moving to Minmore, the output in 1859 started at 600 gallons per week, marking a 12-fold increase in production over 35 years.

During the building of the new site, some parts of the old distillery were taken apart to remove and recycle equipment like the stills and the grain drying kiln. After this, the original Upper Drumin complex returned to being a farm, and its buildings gradually vanished over time. An archaeological survey was conducted in 1994, but it was only recently that an excavation could take place. This fieldwork was part of the Pioneering Spirit project, a collaboration between the National Trust for Scotland and The Glenlivet (which is part of the Chivas Group, owned by Pernod Ricard). The project aims to reveal the hidden history of whisky-making in Scotland, from its illegal origins to the growth of industrial distilleries. Most of our previous archaeological work focused on Trust land, studying the remains of illegal whisky bothies at Mar Lodge Estate, Torridon, Ben Lomond and Ben Lawers. However, Upper Drumin is owned by Crown Estate Scotland, so we collaborated closely with their Countryside Ranger for this research. Over the past three years, a team of Trust archaeological volunteers and local residents has spent about a month excavating the site, leading to some exciting discoveries.

Still room for discoveries

Many of George Smith’s buildings are no longer visible, but we can find information from existing documents. Late 18th- and early 19th-century estate plans show that his farm at Upper Drumin was designed as a three-sided courtyard with buildings on the west, south and east sides. An early description of the new distillery at Minmore suggests it had a similar layout. This description provides detailed insights into the whisky production process at the new site, indicating that the same steps might have been organised similarly at the original distillery. To explore this idea, we dug a series of trial trenches to investigate parts of all three building ranges at Upper Drumin and the paved and cobbled courtyard area between them.

The western area, located uphill from the site, was likely where barley was soaked and allowed to sprout on the malting floors. The eastern section probably housed the washbacks or tuns, where large vats fermented the wort into beer before it was sent to the stills for distillation. Most of our research has concentrated on the southern range, which was the main area for technical distilling work, including the ‘Still Room,’ and it is also the best-preserved part of the site.

Excavation findings indicate that the ‘Still Room’ was accessed through a large door in the southeast corner of the courtyard. A worn flagstone floor covered much of this space, and three furnaces were positioned along the southern wall. The archaeological remains were only preserved to a height of three to four courses, but they clearly formed the base of a stone platform that would have held (from west to east) the water boiler, the wash still, and the spirit still. The ash pits beneath the fires indicate that coal was used, and artefacts such as iron hinges, an iron furnace door, and many heavy, burnt iron fire grate bars were found. The stills would have been placed both within the upper levels of the stonework and likely on a second layer of iron bars.

Set into the floor in front of the stills were the remains of an oak vat, which has been interpreted as the ‘underback’, a wooden container into which the liquid from the mash tun would have been drained and allowed to cool before it was pumped into the wash-backs where yeast was added. It was allowed to ferment into beer. There were other telling traces immediately to the east of the spirit still: two circular features, one stone-lined and the other outlined by an iron barrel hoop, but both of which have two levels of timbers forming a raised support for vats. These are thought to mark the positions of the two ‘receivers’, where the distilled alcohol was tapped off from the stills having passed through the copper spiral worm and cooled down with running water. 

At this point in the process, the distilled alcohol needed to be monitored by the on-site Excise Officer to prevent illegal diversion. The vats were raised off the ground for easy inspection underneath and were kept locked. The discovery of a brass slider from a padlock in this area supports this idea. It is marked ’Gottlieb Patent’, indicating it was a type of padlock patented in 1829 for use by the Excise Officer.

Full measure

In addition to piecing the production layout back together (typified by the plan of the spirit room that we can now reconstruct), our project also recovered a wide range of artefacts from the site that provide interesting insights into the day-to-day functioning of the distillery. While the copper pot stills had clearly been dismantled and moved downhill in 1859, there were still quantities of copper piping and off-cuts present, probably from repair works, while a small copper cup looks like a dram measure from which the distillery staff would have been given an allocated daily ‘nip’ of whisky.

The sunken-floored features, such as the underback vat and receiver positions, were particularly good locations for accumulated material. Some of their upper fills were clearly related to the final dismantling of the site, including structural remains such as perforated bricks from the malt-drying kiln, arched bricks from the furnace entrance, and lots of large iron fire-grate bars. The lower deposits, however, may have been more closely linked with production; they included quite a few smashed glasses (mainly of the stemmed wine-drinking variety) and numerous broken clay tobacco pipes. Whisky-making is a drawn-out process (it takes about a week), and in between bouts of activity, there must have been a fair amount of tending fires and waiting on processes; smoking and a degree of drinking certainly seem to have occurred. Other personal items were found in the southeast area, between the spirit still and the building's corner, which seemed to be a dumping spot for things like clothing, wool gloves, and leather boots.

There were also signs of the industrial process. Moving liquids in the distillery was complex. Some water could flow by gravity (the western dam is higher than the eastern one), but pumps were needed to transfer liquids between stages. This is likely shown by the discovery of a couple of iron frames and a possible washer from a pump plunger. After the final distillation was collected in the spirit receiver, it was pumped into casks and likely stored in the east range before being sent to market. These casks were sealed with bungs, and over ten examples made from cork oak have been found on the site.

While no samples of whisky have been located, we did find a single window glass sherd possibly inscribed with a word starting with the letter G (perhaps for ‘George’ or ‘Glenlivet’), as well as a single silver coin of George III (1816 – 1820). As this monarch’s reign pre-dates George Smith going legal in 1824, is it possible that this represents money for the illicit whisky that he had previously made on the farm? Excavation of The Glenlivet’s original distillery has certainly proved rewarding – the very fact that it was upgraded in 1859 and moved to a new site has meant that the plan and layout of the Upper Drumin complex have survived, something that rarely happens with later industrial-scale distilleries where rapid expansion in production often leads to the destruction of their earlier phases.