Timeline

Glenugie Distillery, Longside | Pre-1831 to 1853(?)

 1830   First records, unknown startup date. In 1846 a reference was made to the distillery having been in production for almost 20 years. The owner is Donald McLeod & Co., and they seem to be increasing the size of the business (entered into Contract of Copartnery to carry on his present business on an extended scale). 

1831    The distillery produced 6280 imperial proof gallons of malt spirit.

1832    6906 gallons produced.

1833    7080 gallons produced. Donald McLeod ceased to be a partner in the company, and was only employed as the distiller.

1834    3402 gallons produced

1836    McLeod ceased to work at Glenugie. 

1837    They either never found a new distiller, or are looking for another one at the end of the year.

1841    The distillery is for sale. It has an approximately 227 litres low wine still (50 gallons), and a wash still of around 546 litres (120 gallons). It’s still for sale in 1842. 

1844    William Noble is registered as a distiller in Longside and in 1846 it is mentioned he was the distiller at Glenugie. Presumably he had been there since at least 1844. 

1847    Theft from distillery of 2 hydrometers and a saccharometer from Excise officer Mr J. Mitchell.

1850    The distillery is advertised to let. 

1851    It is still mentioned in the return of licensed distillers to parliament. 

It is unknown when it closed for good, but there was excise men registered in Longside in 1853. It is unknown if these would be for the distillery, if so it suggests it was still running then. 

By 1854 the distillery was called the old Glenugie distillery, and in 1858 it is referred to as fast falling into decay. In 1859 it had become a sawmill, which is actually still in use today (although the sawmill has moved a bit up the hill from the distillery location).

Glenugie Distillery, Peterhead | 1875 to 1982

 Exists as mill since at least 1839

1874 c. George Whyte (originally a writer in Aberdeen) bought 28 acres of the lands and mill of Invernettie for £2250. He also set up the Scottish Highland Distillery Company (Limited) which would build the Invernettie distillery. In this company 7000 shares were offered @ £5 of which 1522 were taken up at £3 10s. 

1874    First shareholder meeting happened, first distillation estimated to start in early October. George Whyte feued 9 ½ acres of the land to the Scottish Highland Distillery Company.

1875    Production has started, draff for sale. 

1876    Start of fight for water with neighbour, lasts until at least 1877.

1877    Company gets into trouble, rents premises to George Whyte for 2 years @ £500 a year, under new business George Whyte and Co. 

1879    Most shareholders push to wind up the Scottish Highland Distillery Company. In court case Whyte had been buying up most of the shares of others. The company is liquidated. 

1882    Petition for sequestration (bankruptcy) filled by Adam Henderson against George Whyte and Co. Company around £23 383 in negative after assets included. Distillery put for sale in summer, could produce upwards of 2800 gallons a week. Reduced to £5000 in autumn, 

1883    The whole 28 acres were sold to the Northern Heritable Securities Investment Company (Limited). The distillery was then sold to Simon Forbes (for £3400?). Forbes took over in December and renamed it Glenugie Distillery. It’s unclear if this was separate to the 1886 purchase or if it just took time to make it official. Production starts again in December, with draff available for sale.

1885    Alfred Bernard visits the distillery and describes it in his book, mentioning the present output is around 90 000 gallons (around 1750 a week) but more could be produced if desired. 

1886    The whole 28 acre property was bought by Forbes from the Northern Heritable Securities Investment Company (Limited).

1887    Some land compulsory bought by Admiralty to make the railway line between Stirlinghill Quarry and the Harbour of Refuge. They paid £1135 2s 9d. Whyte challenged the sale when he was bankrupt (likely due to the good price offered for the land here), but this was rejected in several court cases lasting into 1890.

1889    New warehouse built (100x60 ft)

1892    5yo Glenugie whisky for sale (at Invernettie)

1893    “The battle of Wellington Burn”. Fight over the water rights with the Peterhead Town Council and Forbes/the Glenugie Distillery. The council built a dam over the Wellington Burn. The distillery took some water from it, and during a dry summer they were running out of water. Distillery workers would destroy the dam, and the council would have workers to protect it. The dam was destroyed and rebuilt several times over a period of over 2 months. The dispute continued in court over several years, finalising with Forbes winning. 

1895    Tender for a new bonded store (warehouse), which was built by the end of the year. 

1896    Death of Mr A. Rae, who was the distillery manager. Since Forbes mostly lived in Edinburgh he did a lot of the management at the distillery. Later in the year the new manager Mr George Duncan severely lacerated his hand in some machinery.

1898    Fire at the distillery. An elevator got too hot, which set fire to the malt in it. This set fire to the roof. The fire lasted around 1 hour and caused an estimated 200 pounds of damage. Glenugie whisky was available for sale in Edinburgh. 

The distillery manager George Duncan left to go to India. 

Forbes sold the distillery, but a series of court cases followed which showed the sale fell through and Forbes remained as the owner. The original purchaser (John Hay Thorburn) bought it for £30 600 in May 1898, and then resold it to Alexander Dempster for £34 000. Dempster pulled out of the sale, and so followed multiple court cases between Forbes and Thorburn, and Thorburn and Dempster until 1900. 

1899   Glenugie whisky involved as part of the Pattison crash case. 

1900   Additional water was found at Grange Moss, and Forbes allowed the Peterhead Water Commission to develop this, as long as they provided pipes and some water supply to 5 cottages at Glenugie. This was a short term arrangement while needed during water shortages. 

1903   A young 3 year old boy was seriously hurt after falling from a loft in the distillery. 

1907   Some of the distillery casks were used for transporting water. They were then sold the year after (both butts, hogsheads and puncheons).

1908   The agreement with the water board was stopped, as they did not need to take more water from the Wellington Burn. 

1915   Forbes is still registered as the owner. During the war several job positions at the distillery were advertised. 

1920   Distillery sold to Edward Young & Co. by Forbes. Production capacity was nearly 200 000 proof gallons per year. It was referred to as having a quick maturing whisky. 

1921   Registered as a joint-stock company (Glenugie Distillery Ltd.), for £33 000 at 1 a share. 

It seems that production either stopped (in 1927?) or never occurred under Edward Young & Co., and they used it for storage instead as the whisky market was bad. In 1929 it is reported a revenue officer was questioning the use, and the owners said although production had not occurred for some time it could be started when needed. 

1923   Described in the "The Distilleries Of Great Britain & Ireland: A Journey Through The Heartlands Of Whisky, 1922-1929" by James Eadie. Note: the technical details and some phrases in this article are so similar to Alfred Barnard's 1885 article the details here may by copied from there rather than a 1923 description: The production was around 3000 gallons per week, with space for 3000 casks in the warehouses. It was powered by both water and steam, used locally sourced barley and peat. The washbacks have switchers, the wash charge is 9000 gallons, the wash still had a capacity of 5350 gallons and the spirit still 2860 gallons. The wash still had a horizontal condenser, whereas the spirit still was upright.

1933   More issues with water for Burnhaven.

1937   Seager Evans & Co Ltd purchases the distillery and will restart production. It is mentioned that although no production took place considerable amounts of whisky were stored there. 

1956? Scheney International acquired Seager Evans & Co Ltd. Was the distillery improved then?

1959   The Glenugie name was registered in the US (for a patent?)

1962   William Allan becomes distillery manager. He was one of the first to promote a distillery as a tourist attraction, having landscaping and highland cows at the distillery. He left to go to Tamnavulin in 1965. 

1956   Output amounted to 346,343 gallons.

1966   Output amounted to 356,988 gallons. Mr A. J. Auchinachie became the distillery manager. It’s reported that the whisky matured at Glenugie for at least three years until it was re-dipped and re-guaged, and then sent down to Strathclyde where the great bulk of it went into the firm’s ‘Long John’ brand of Scottish whisky. A new warehouse was built. It was divided up into two separate sections and was capable of storing 1,300 butts (butt=110 gals.) and 6,600 hogsheads (hoghead=56 gals.) of malt whisky, whereas the other nine altogether could hold 1.5 million gallons.

1967   A new cooperage was most likely built. The 18 employees who worked at the cooperage or ancillary workshops such as the joiners, engineers, fitters and transport accommodation were also provided showers and also a canteen for their lunch breaks. Glenugie had a filling on three days of the week, which amounted to approximately 8,000 gallons per week , with an average of 300 casks removed each month.

1972   There was an application for 24-30 new houses, but this was declined to to help it be used for industrial purposes later if needed by the Aberdeen County Council planning department

1974   Compulsory purchase of some of the distillery land (14 690m2) to build the Peterhead Harbour access road.

1975   Whitbread & Co purchased the Long John International group in summer with an £18.5 million offer. 

1976   Fairly major oil leak from the oil used to heat the boilers to provide steam. The alarm system had failed, which resulted in the leak. Long John used a professional cleaning company to clean up. 

1977   An off-sales license was granted to the distillery, but only for distillery visitors rather than the general public. A second oil spill occurred. 

1982   Distillery closed. 

1984   Distillery site split and sold to 2 companies; Score UK. and Jason Metals.

1994   When Score launched the new 180 000 sq ft warehouse scheme everyone was presented with a bottle of Glenugie whisky. 

2018   Reported the last parts of the distillery was knocked down in scotchwhisky.com. But a few of the later built warehouses still survive to this day.