On January 29th 1852 smugglers caves and bothies on Arran, numbering about a dozen, were discovered and demolished by revenue men.
In 1814 the act banning the use of stills of less than 500 gallons was introduced. This limited whisky production to commercial concerns and from then on farmers had no way of raising enough money to pay their rents, as distilling allowed them to use their excess grain for whisky which could be sold at a profit greater than that of the grain itself. This drove many honest people to smuggling as a way to survive. Many widespread difficulties were caused by farmers moving off the land, that agriculture in the Highlands was in danger of dying out. The law was changed in 1816 to allow stills of more than 40 gallons to be legal to encourage small distillers. However this still meant that stills under 40 gallons were determined to be portable and hence illegal which eradicated a lot of domestic distilling.
Smuggling gangs set up stills in secret places. The stills themselves were small so that if the excise man was spotted they could be removed and hidden. Smuggling chiefs were often men of high standing in the community. When one of their men was arrested the chief's name would be kept secret. This was partly due to the fact that the excise duties were seen as a tax by a foreign power, i.e. England, and so denying this revenue was their patriotic duty.
There are many tales of the deviousness of the whisky smuggler in outwitting the gaugers (an itinerant excise-man who measured containers and their content),[and the excise-men. In one such story the gaugers confiscate a large cask of spirit and transport it to a nearby inn where they are staying. They take the cask to their room on the second floor for safe keeping. The smugglers came to the inn and employ the serving girl to locate where the cask sits on the floor above and using an auger bore into the bottom of the cask, removing all the spirit so that there is none left for the gaugers to sample.
The only way to tackle the illegal distilling entirely was to decrease the duty so that it was no longer profitable and increase policing so that the military and gaugers were increased. Revenue cutters were employed up and down the coast and the numbers excise-men was increased as they were often out numbered by smuggling gangs. Further tariff reforms and generous rewards for informers were introduced and these measures became known as "the burning and starving act".
Illicit distilling has died out from lack of profitability, but rumours still persist in remote places of homemade moonshine like "Melvaig Mist"
Of course the troubles with the excise-man started long before the 19th century, Rabbie Burns, himself an excise-man for a time, wrote a poem, I will post later, the end few lines are........
Scotland, my auld, respected Mither! Tho' whyles ye moistify your leather, Till when ye speak, ye aiblins blether; Yet deil-mak-matter! Freedom and Whisky gang thegither, Take aff your whitter.
Pics are a reconstruction of how an illicit still might have looked and a bottle of whisky made on Arran in a gimmicky hollowed out book!
