The Whisky's pedigree dates back at least 500 years to the time when malt liquor first began to be distilled in Scotland. It was perhaps natural that distilling should have developed in Scotland. Although brewing malt ale has an even longer history in this country, it was difficult to keep for long as it is too cold to grow. The only way to transform a weak alcoholic liquor into a wholesome drink that would keep for any length of time was to make it into spirit. This had the added advantage of being much easier to transport than bulky beers and ales; an important consideration in a large soarsely populated and mountainous country.

Distilling has its origins in the ancient world. Legend has it that St Patrick brought the precious art of distilling with him from Germany to Ireland and Kintyre on the west coast of Scotland in the fifth century. The earliest documented record of distilling in Scotland occurs as long as 1494, when an entry in the Exchequer Rolls listed 'Eight bolls of malt to Friar JohnCor wherewith to make aqua vitae. This was sufficient to produce almost 1500 bottles. Thus, it is clear that distilling was already a well-established practice.

The remarkable restorative effects of the spirit were quickly recognized and the technique spread rapidly throughout Europe. As a result, the spirits became known as water of life, in Latin 'aqua vitae'. Usquebaugh is the Gaelic for Water of life from which the modern word -whisky- is derived.

By 1644 whisky making had become so widespread that there was a threat of severe grain shortages following a bad harvest. The Scottish parliament took urgent action restricting the right to distil to the upper classes and imposing first excise duty on spirits. Fifty years later drinking usquebaugh, often in large quantities, had become commonplace throughout Scotland. Most of the whisky was made in small domestic stills for the use of the immediate family and servants.

The first commercial public distilleries seem to have been established in the 1660s. One of the largest such entreprise was Ferintosh, near Dingwall, owned by Forbes family of Culloden. When the distillery was burnt to the ground during Jacobite disturbances in 1689, the Forbes family were given the right to distil free of duty in perpetuity. Within sixty years they were producing 40,000 gallons of duty-free whisky a year much to the annoyance of the owners of other public or 'licensed' distilleries that hadf opened in the Lowlands in the 1740s and 1750s. A series of bad harvests in the late 1750s lad to a ban on all licensed distilling. Private ditillers were exempt and many unscrupulous dealers started an illegal traffic that soon overtook the business of the public ditilleries. Many were forced to close and legal production plummeted. Only Forbes of Culloden with their unique privilege benifited from these events. A huge trade developed in smuggling whisky from the Highlands into the Lowlands.

Despite smuggling on a large scale, in the last quarter of the eighteenth century licensed distillers continued to flourish. Production climbed rapidly, new distilleries opened and existing plants were extended. The leading producers, Stein & Haig families, had the largest plants at Kilbagie and Kennetpans in Clackmannshire, at canonmills and Lochrin in Edinburgh, and at Kincable near St Andrews.

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