Barnard visited Tamdhu the day after Glenrothes and he took the long 12 mile journey by horse and trap. He could perhaps have taken the railway to first Craigellachie junction and then changed onto the Strathspey line for Carron station, from there following his same 4 mile route to Cardhu Distillery from the decade previously and continuing on to Tamdhu. He notes in his report that there was no station beside Tamdhu at that time “but the Company are having one built, which will be opened in a few months’ time” which handily places his trip here to around early 1899 as the station opened in July that year, more on which in my next report.
Two miles south of Rothes his horse “left the highway and we made our way up a zig-zag road to the heights which overlook Craigellachie”. This would be from the road junction opposite the then Dandaleith Station that takes you up past Macallan Distillery on what is now the B9102. I have walked up this road before, on my way from Craigellachie to Macallan, the uphill route on that day catching me out a little until it levelled out and here Barnard records a similarly difficult uphill journey. Once it levels off he describes a fine view across to Ben Rinnes and the Conval Hills and gives his first appreciation of the scene. His usual excess is unabated here with phrases such as “The Valley of the Spey – proverbial for whatever is magnificent and picturesque in Nature” setting the bar rather high in the first few paragraphs.
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| Ben Rinnes and Conval hills beyond, from near Tamdhu |
The driver then apparently pointed out a historic feature that we have encountered before, the site of encampments associated with the Battle of Mortlach. Here he describes a dyke that he says was built by the Scottish army under Malcolm III (actually Malcolm II for that Battle), a dyke long since recorded on maps as the “Danish Dyke” and associated with their army, and he mentions that the King and Queen spent the night on “a spot of ground called to this day the ‘Queen’s Haugh’”. This is likely to be the ‘Queen’s Green’ as it was marked on maps of the time, a haugh being a meadow beside a river so interchangeable terms. Both of these features were close to Dailuaine Distillery.
From there the journey descended rapidly to Tamdhu, following a bridle path that was at that time being turned into a proper roadway. The road is accompanied down the hill by what Barnard calls the Tamdhu burn, otherwise marked on maps as the Knockando Burn, and he briefly mentions that this had turned into a river during the floods of 1829 and washed away homes and industry. This Muckle Spate we have encountered a few times before and it was recorded in the Second Statistical Account of Scotland in the Knockando Parish report of 1835 which quoted the extent of the devastation from one account of the event:
“The Knockando Burn
is extremely small, but it was swollen by the flood to a size equal to that of
the Spey in its ordinary state. After
the flood the prospect here was melancholy; the burn that formerly wound through
the beautiful haugh had cut a channel as broad as that of the Spey, from one
end of it to the other. The whole wood
was gone, the carding mill had disappeared, the miller’s house was in ruins. A new road was recently made in this parish,
and all the burns were substantially bridged, but, with the exception of one
arch, all yielded to the pressure of the flood.”
Barnard describes the approach to the distillery with the burn running through a gorge, under bridges and the road taking them through a “Birch Glade” near where the historic Knockando Woolmill has now reopened. He arrived at his destination and proclaimed that the malt whisky produced in the wider district here is celebrated as much as the beauty, scenery and history that he has just spent almost half of his entire report describing. He then realises, quite astutely I think, that “our readers will begin to enquire when we are coming to what we have to say about the Tamdhu Distillery and its subsidiary buildings.” Quite, yes, I’ll get on with then.
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| Tamdhu Distillery |
The water power was from the burn that Barnard had just followed down the hill, now tamed and utilised where once before it had been a wild torrent on that fateful night. The process water was drawn from a spring in the “Smugglers Glen, some three or four hundred yards above the distillery” and local spring water is still used today. Peats were brought a few miles from “that famous moss, Bog-Hur” (nope, me neither) which I guess could be the Blair Hur moss above
He continues “there are few distilleries so romantically situated as this, and no words of ours can describe the unrivalled views from any part of the premises”, although that didn’t stop him helping himself to yet another paragraph of scenery gazing! He drags himself away from the view and begins his tour of the premises, as usual for him then and very often on tours today, at the maltings. He called it a hasty visit and the interesting point here is that he mentions the railway siding that ran up the side of the distillery to the end of the maltings, connected to the Strathspey railway that passed by the distillery’s southern end.
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| Tamdhu maltings, tall grain silos behind |
The Saladin boxes were built across the triple vaulted malting floors and the kiln at the end has been adapted and no longer reflects the older designs. Two huge silos were also added to the west side in the 1970s, one for barley intake and one to store the malt, after the railway that once supplied barley direct to the granary closed to freight traffic in November 1968 (railbrit.co.uk). The air in the kiln was preheated by the hot water from the condensers and a little peat was also burned for the malt used at Tamdhu (Udo, 2005). The number of Saladin boxes was doubled to ten in 1966 to also supply other distilleries, including Glenrothes whose own malting floors closed at that time.
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| Tamdhu kilns |
The mash tun was described as capacious and contained a “porcupine or stirring apparatus” for mashing and the draff was then extracted by Archimedean screw direct to railway wagons on the siding running past. Barnard also describes a “coign of vantage” for the brewer to direct operations in three departments below, the historic equivalent of the modern one man operation via a control panel. He also notices the roar of the water wheel which was situated under the floor of these buildings and which drove all the machinery.
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| Tamdhu tun room and mash house |
The still house was apparently quite a feature at Tamdhu, although in all respects similar to that at Glen Rothes that he had visited the day before and which he had described as one of the finest in the district and also designed by Doig. It was a lofty building lit by twenty windows and with two large outside worm tubs. There were two pot stills then which Barnard describes as being “of the O.G. shape, which the Manager is of the opinion are more efficient than the old fashioned ones, and of much better appearance”. I can only imagine that he here meant ‘ogee’ shape, that sweeping double curve from base up through the shoulder and onto the swan neck on a pear shaped still, without the interruption of a reflux bowl or constricted neck.
The stills were increased from two to four in 1972 and then following that 1973/4 rebuild they were increased again to six. The moving of the mash tun and the tun room from the middle wing allowed the expansion of the still house northwards as part of an overall increase in production at a time when the whole industry was doing well. The distillery capacity is 4m litres per year placing it around the top quarter mark in
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| Tamdhu warehouses |
Tamdhu was founded by a consortium of blenders that included William Grant of Highland Distilleries, a company formed by the merger of his Glen Rothes distillery and Bunnahabhain distillery in 1887 and which formally took over Tamdhu in 1898. This new distillery was built during the boom years just before the Pattison collapse but it survived along with the other two, although silent later from 1927-47 (Udo, 2005). In 1999
This turned out to be a temporary closure though as the distillery was sold to Ian MacLeod Distillers in June 2011 and production restarted in January this year after a break of just 18 months. Ian Macleod already bottled a 16yo Tamdhu independently but most of the previous production went into blends including Famous Grouse. Tamdhu has normally always been lightly peated and it will be interesting to see what style(s) the new owners will produce going forward. Tamdhu single malt is to be relaunched with new branding next year after only limited availability and as special releases and independent bottles in the past (MWYB 2011).
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| Tamdhu station before renovation this year |
Barnard tried a wee sample of the Tamdhu before leaving, pronouncing it as excellent, and notes that of the many hours spent there “time has indeed flown with us this day, but it has not been misspent”. Hear, hear! to that Alfred, and may time forever flow for Tamdhu’s future as surely as the Spey flows by their doors. I hope to visit again and not misspend some time there now that they are back in production, perhaps if that station building once more echoes to the sound of weary travellers in need of sustenance.
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| River Spey rapids below Tamdhu |
“It is the land of
beauty and of grandeur,
Where looks the
cottage out on a domain
The palace cannot
boast of. Seas of lakes,
And hills of forests.
–Torrents here
Are bounding floods;
and there the tempest roams
At large, in all the
terrors of its glory.”
The first four lines here almost describing a scene that you could witness along the Spey both then and today; the latter full sentence remarkably sounding like a nod to the Muckle Spate that so shaped the landscape here.
I managed to trace the original verse, which was shortened and paraphrased by Barnard, to an 1833 play called The Wife by the early 19th century Irish dramatist James Sheridan Knowles. The description in the play (in full below) actually refers to
If this wasn’t a romantic description of
“It is the land of
beauty and of grandeur, lady!-
Where looks the
cottage out on a domain
The palace cannot
boast of. Seas of lakes,
And hills of forests!
Crystal
‘Midst mountains all
of snow, and mock the sun,
Returning high his
flaming beams more thick
And radiant than he
sent them. Torrents there
Are bounding floods;
and there the tempest roams
At large, in all the
terrors of its glory.
And then our valleys!
Oh! They are the homes
For hearts. Our cottages, our vineyards, orchards,
Our pastures studded
with the herd and fold!
Our native strains
that melt us as they sing them!
A free – a gentle –
simple – honest people!”
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