Glen Albyn Distillery Fire 1849

 

Published in the John Bull newspaper on Saturday 1 December 1849.

One of the great distillery risks and ultimately destroyers of distilleries, was and remains fire. In the 1800s it was a common problem and Glen Albyn was no different in suffering sizeable damage.

This brief article is useful because it gives us a sense of the scale - and drama - of the event and the widespread damage. We know the original main building was completely destroyed and all that remained was the shell of the outer walls. The distillery was less than a decade old and would have been forced to stop production.

The rebuilding work would be slow and the distillery would not return to production until 1852. This suggests the owner James Sutherland did not insure the facility or wanted to reappraise the original plans - with our research suggesting that at least one new pipe was installed to help the flow of new make.

What is clear, is that the original Glen Albyn distillery was created and lost within a decade, or that is what you might believe before this research project started.