Just as night follows day, so it is when you visit Scotland you will find that it is inevitable that you will visit a distillery. Go on, don’t fight it! You know you want to, after all it’s an integral part of Scottish history, and we are all for a bit of history aren’t we?
But where do you start, after all there are supposed to be well over a hundred in Scotland, and that’s just the ones that we know about. Well it’s a good job that Historic Scotland is riding to our rescue, because they can offer us a chance to visit Dallas Dhu in Moray, which although is not now an active distillery, gives you a pretty good idea what distilling was all about. You then have a chance to pay a visit to an active distillery in a much more knowledgeable frame of mind.
Originally it was the brainchild of a businessman and entrepreneur called Alexander Edward. In 1898, he founded two new distilleries on land outside Forres – Benromach and Dallasmore. There was a demand for malt whisky to be used for blending, and these two distilleries filled that requirement.
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| Dallas Dhu Malt Whisky |
However, before Dallasmore went into production in 1899, Edward sold the distillery to the blending firm of Wright & Greig Limited from Glasgow. They wanted the distillery to ensure a supply of malt for their popular blend, Roderick Dhu, and to reinforce the link, they changed the distillery’s name to Dallas Dhu.
When it was in its pomp, the distillery would have had about fifteen men working there, including a manager, a brewer, and a number of other staff. These were divided up into different groups, each headed by a lead man. There was a stillman, a mashman, and a maltman, as well as the cooper and warehousemen. They were expected to be jacks of all trades as they were supposed to turn their hand to anything from unloading barley and shovelling peat to rolling out the barrels.
One person stood out from all of this however, namely the exciseman. He was not employed by the distillery, but by Customs and Excise, despite the fact that the distillery had to provide him with a house and office!
Dallas Dhu Distillery had a working life from 1899 to 1983, with the first barrel being filled on 3 June 1899.
The final barrel was on 16 March 1983, and while it was open, it certainly had a varied existence. Having been closed during the First World War, it reopened and Wright and Greig sold it to J. P. O’Brien & Co Ltd of Glasgow. Their ownership was short, as they went into liquidation in 1921, and Dallas Dhu was sold to Benmore Distillery.
They put a lot of money into the business with on site developments, including a new railway siding. However, the Great Depression forced closure in the early 1930s, and by sheer bad luck, soon after reopening production, the distillery was badly damaged by fire, on 9 April 1939. Production began again in 1947, but was finally closed in 1983, largely because of a water shortage caused by prolonged drought. The buildings were reopened to the public in 1988, and Historic Scotland has operated the property since 1992.
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