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Highland Whisky
Appears in
Published 2021
The word ‘whisky’ derives from the Gaelic uisge beatha (pronounced ‘ooshky bay’), meaning ‘water of life’ and for many Highlanders that is exactly what it is – life is good if there is whisky in the house. Some swear that a dram a day will see them through good health and old age. My nearest neighbour in a croft at the end of the glen ‘will die happy if he has a dram in his hand’, indeed my own father reached the grand age of 91 and his parting breath was enriched by a final dram.
Since the fifteenth century, whisky has been part of life in the Highlands, embroiled in illicit distilling and smuggling, evading excisemen and taxes. At one time whole communities were involved in either making whisky or smuggling it – the subject of myths and legends and the catalyst of many a story. I live in a whisky smuggler’s glen where over the years the tales of illicit stills and excisemen buried in peat bogs have grown congenial arms and legs but that is part of the spirit’s hypnotic pleasure. The aromas and flavours, the company and location, can all add to the dreams and storytelling; it is, after all, a drink of friendship and hospitality.