Whenever I mention the Edradour Distillery the most common response is ‘Where’s that?’
The distillery is in the parish of Moulin in the county of Perthshire. Moulin itself is a village less than two miles from Edradour.
Moulin was once the centre of commerce and enterprise for the area being about one third larger than Pitlochry, which was the only other village in the area, situated on ‘the old military road’.
The Statistical Account of 1799 describes the soil around the village of Moulin ‘as among the most fertile in the Highlands of Perthshire’. It also tells us that the main export of the area was linen and that there were 20 mills of various types in the area. The mills were situated along the two main sources of water in the parish, Kinnaird Burn and Edradour Burn.
Old Ordnance Survey maps show a Lint Mill in Edradour and a cluster of pendicles, being small cottages, that were collectively called Milton of Edradour. Nearby are the much larger grounds of Edradour House, the owner of which collected rents from the tenants of the pendicles in Milton of Edradour. ‘Milton’ is clearly a reference to the industry of the area being the derived from Mill Town.
However this little area wasn’t always called Milton of Edradour. Old Atholl Estate records show that the area now occupied by the Edradour Distillery was once called Balnauld and was clearly a croft or small farm. Its rental yields were the smallest of all the farms connected with Edradour such as Mains, Ardgie, Tombui and Croftinloan, which may explain why, in later Estate records, the name Balnauld is dropped and the area is referred to simply as the Milton Pendicles.
Industry in the area wasn’t just mills, there were a number of large farms around Edradour that kept many of the men busy as agricultural labourers. The estate of Edradour House also consisted of moors for grouse shooting and deer stalking, which needed to be maintained and managed by the locals. In the Atholl Estate archives there are old geological survey records that confirm that quarrying for limestone was another means of employment. A limestone kiln is detailed on an early map of Edradour and several tenants in Milton of Edradour listed quarryman as their occupation in early census records.
Edradour is thought of as always being part of the Duke of Atholl’s estate but for a period between 1807 and 1825 it was owned by Sir John Hay and then bought back again by the Duke. At the time of purchase the Duke described Edradour as ‘a handsome place, some fine old trees and a fine prospect. The house with a little more work might be adequate for any gentlemen shooters’.
Today the old military road is called the A9, a major road that links Edinburgh, Glasgow and Stirling in the south with Inverness and the northern Highlands.
Moulin is no longer the powerhouse of the parish having been usurped by Pitlochry, which is almost exactly half way between Edinburgh and Inverness, just south of the Cairngorms National Park.
Driving up the A9 and approaching Pitlochry, the traveller is invited to stop to see its famous theatre, dam and fish ladder, and two whisky distilleries; Blair Atholl and Edradour.
The Edradour Distillery is 4 miles from Pitlochry and the drive takes the traveller through the village of Moulin where, if you take a stroll around the churchyard, you will not only find the grave of an unnamed Crusader but also a number of people connected with Edradour’s history. Just beyond Moulin are rows of houses, small holdings and farms either side of road in Kinnaird, a place also associated with Edradrour Distillery, and a mile later you’ll enter the tiny hamlet of Edradour.
The surrounding area is beautiful at any time of the year. Whether it is the sun streaking through the clouds, casting long shadows across the lochs, or balls of mist clinging to the hills, or the dramatic sight of thunderous black against the mountains, the atmosphere in these parts is both exhilarating and magical.
Until the early 1900s much of the land in the parish of Moulin was owned by the Duke of Atholl, who resides nearby at Blair Castle. The locals would rent pendicles, small holdings and farms from the Estate and many would also be employed in work very close to where they lived.
The 6th Duke held the family seat from 1846 and his wife, Ann Murray, was a close friend of Queen Victoria and her Majesty was a regular visitor to Blair Castle from the 1840s where the future Duke lived. Such was her regard for the beautiful scenery that she often insisted on horse riding ‘incognita’, as she stated in her journal. With her bodyguard, John Brown, for companionship and a few of the Duke’s own Highlanders they would ride the hills and villages, taking in Lochs Tummel and Faskally, and even passing through Pitlochry on their way back to Blair Castle for the inevitable feast of local fish, game and whisky.
Her Majesty’s fondness for the area also extended to the people. In appreciation of the dedication and care that the Duke’s Highlanders took during a three week holiday in 1842, the Queen granted them the right to bear arms, making them the only private army in Britain.
Whereas the Scots maintained that whisky could prolong life with its curative properties, it was Queen Victoria’s physician, Sir James Clarke, who championed the notion that spending time in the right climate was equal to, if not better at, restoring health than any pill or potion. He was known to regularly prescribe holidays in parts of the country reputed to be blessed with good clean air and clear water. Pitlochry was such a place and Sir James made numerous recommendations to his esteemed patients assuring them that a week immersed in the elements and hospitality of Pitlochry would soon chase illness away.
To this end a number of hydropathic retreats were established in the area, each proclaiming the virtues of the local water running off the nearby hills. This is the very same water used to make whisky at Edradour, and in some small way confirms the Scots’ belief in the restorative powers of whisky. After all, it has long been said ‘If a body could just find oot the exac’ proper proportion and quantity that ought to be drunk every day, and keep it to that, I verily trow that he might leeve for ever, without dying at a’.