View from south west of two distillery houses (27 and 28)

Description View from south west of two distillery houses (27 and 28)

Date 26/4/1993

Catalogue Number C 3841

Category Photographs and Off-line Digital Images

Copies SC 732215

Scope and Content Worker's housing from south-west, Balmenach Distillery, Highland Balmenach Distillery was formally established in 1824, when legend has it James Macgregor was visited by an exciseman who advised him to 'take out a license on yon peat shed' in which he had been illicitly distilling whisky. Like most distilleries it has been renovated and has changed hands several times in the course of its history, before being 'mothballed' in 1993. It was acquired by Inver House distillers in 1991, and is now once more in use. This shows two of the workers' houses, which are similar in style to the manager's house, with their rubble walls and smooth dressed stone surrounds to door and windows. The first-floor windows break the roofline and have attractive pointed tops. They would have been built by the distillery to house employees close to the works. These houses and that of the manager, were noted by the writer Alfred Barnard in his 1887 guide 'The Whisky Distilleries of the United Kingdom'. He reports: 'On the property, just above the larger stream, there is a neat dwelling-house, occupied by the Manager; and scattered about the base of the Hills and in the Glen, there are cottages with little gardens attached, for the employees'. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/50476