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The recent excavation of a clandestine stone bothy at Ben Lawers National Nature Reserve (NNR) has uncovered a rare piece of a copper still, providing concrete proof that the site was once used for illegal whisky production.
The investigation was carried out as part of the Pioneering Spirit project, a partnership between the National Trust for Scotland and The Glenlivet, which won CA’s ‘Research Project of the Year’ Award in 2025 (see CA 416, CA 421, and CA 422). This initiative is working to document archaeological evidence for historic illicit distilling sites on National Trust for Scotland owned properties across the nation, and has so far identified more than 30 examples.
It was already known that clandestine production had taken place at Ben Lawers, as surveys by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS) had previously identified five potential sites, and one of these had already been excavated by the Pioneering Spirit project. The team have now investigated a second location and discovered clear evidence that it, too, was used for unlicensed whisky distilling.
The site was extremely well-concealed, nestled in a gully where a slight bend in the burn would have prevented it from being seen from either upstream or downstream, and there the team found a collapsed stone bothy. As well as a hearth and a large, stone-capped drain, this building was found to contain part of the tapered copper-alloy collar (known as an gearradan in Gaelic) that connects a cylindrical tube called the lyne arm to the head of a still. It represents a rare find, as the stills were usually taken and destroyed by the excise officers who searched the Highlands for such sites in the 18th and 19th centuries, or else removed by the smugglers themselves before the authorities could get to them.
Commenting on the discovery, Derek Alexander, Head of Archaeology for NTS, said: ‘If the still had been found by the excise officers, it would have been taken away and destroyed. So, the fact that we have found this connecting piece here suggests the still was dismantled in a hurry and its components whisked away by the smugglers as they dispersed. The connecting piece may have been forgotten in the rush and left behind.’
Text: Kathryn Krakowka / Image: National Trust for Scotland
