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This
is an example of one of the page spreads from The Malt Whisky Guide. Below
is the text from the pages, illustrating the detail of information on
each distillery. Valueable for any enthusiast, bar or retail outlet.
There are few sights more inspiring than the glimpsing of the first whitewashed walls of a distillery on the short ferry journey into Port Ellen, Isle of Islay. The second set of black letters glaring from warehouse walls is that of Lagavulin meaning 'mill in the hollow'. A powerhouse whisky that is as peaty as it is historical. Lagavulin or Lag A'Mhuillin, was established in 1816 and sits comfortably on Lagavulin Bay next to the 13th century Dunnyveg Castle, previously the abode for the Lord of the Isles. Although two pagodas are still in place Lagavulin no longer malts its own barley.
The ruins of Dunnyveg Castle are still visible from Lagavulin's short pier and it isn't hard to see why the castle was called 'bay of little ships'; the surrounding rockery being far too rugged for any large sea-going vessels to navigate. In the days before the pier was built, casks of whisky had to be floated out to the SS Pibroch, the puffer ship that carried the cargo to and from Islay and the mainland.
Records show that there was illicit distilling on the same site as present day Lagavulin as far back as 1742. Indeed when Alfred Barnard visited the distillery in 1887 he was informed that there were 'ten small and separate smuggling bothys for the manufacture of "moonlight", which when working presented anything but a true picture of "still life", and were all subsequently absorbed into one establishment, the whole work not making more than a few thousand gallons per annum.'
