Old Records

[PureDrop]

Folks,
I used to think EB McGuire's book was a tad boring. However, if you liked it, then you'll like the following:

A PDF (from books.google.com) has interesting figures on the production records of Scotland's and 88 Irish Distilleries for the year 1826/27 and also earlier years.
The PDF is at http://books.google.ie/books/download/REPORTS_FROM_COMMISSIONERS___SEVEN_VOLUM.pdf?id=jjZbAAAAQAAJ&output=pdf (30MB)

PDF-page 617 lists the returns for 88 Irish distilleries in 1826/27 (good location information). A listing for earlier years with proprietor names is in an earlier table on page 443.

page 416 and 421: An account of the number of gallons of proof spirits made from malt only in each distillery in 1825 and 1826 just 5 Irish distilleries making a pure malt whiskey in each period and not the same distilleries in each period!

page 443: No of gallons distilled by each of the Irish Distilleries in 1824/25 - the Distiller's names are given in full but the location detail is missing!
page 465:no of gallons of wash distilled by each Irish distiller 1826/27

Tables 1 and 2 (page 476 on) has the no. of gallons of spirit produced from malt and grain with the amount of malt indicated. Duty was levied if at least one bushel of malt was not used to deliver 10 gallons of spirit. see p481.

p521: a table of the malt-only production from 9 Irish distilleries for , by 1827 the number of malt distilleries in Ireland is up to 11 - see page 601.

page 537 is one of the more interesting - a tot of the distillery utensils, wash, vessels etc. seized in 1821,1822,1823 - the table on page 541 has the same info for 1824 broken down by month. The figures for illicit distillation are massive, e.g. 724 stills seized in Sligo in 1824 with over 900 prosecutions.

page 408 has a Memorial from certain distillers in Dublin to the lords of the treasury from 1826 - signed by 8 distillers.

From all of the above, one can easily get an idea of the relative sizes of the various distilleries.
/M

[IrishWhiskeyChaser]

Excellent find Michael

... an anoracks paradise ...

... and I think I need my rain coat

[PureDrop]

And here's one for the cartophiles.

The OSI now has historic maps and the old 25in maps available online.
So we see the following view of Haig's distillery on the Dodder

Haigs3.jpg (92.64 KiB) Viewed 905 times

But that's not all.
Select "Historic Layers", select "Distillery" and "Apply" and all the distilleries of the late 1800s are highlighted in red on the maps - zoom in and see where they were. I was looking for the Clondra distillery last weekend - this would have been happy. Gary can see where the BlackPitts distillery was around the corner from him. (You can also hit "modern map overlay" to show what's there today. Lots of discoveries here. I hadn't realised that there was a distillery at what's now the Enterprise Centre on Pearse St. or that that there were two in Leixlip.

Those of you who were at the Grand Crew tasting on Thursday night will have heard me discuss the link between the Grand Canal and the whiskey industry. I mentioned that the arrival of the canal in places like Daingean (then Philipstown) coincided with the death of the local distillery. Its on the map and described as "in ruins".
Tullamore shows two distilleries, with another half way between Kilbeggan and Tullamore). One of the marked distilleries looks like the "P&H Egan" building.
Adrian will have fun looking at the ones marked for Galway.
Go to http://ims0.osiemaps.ie/website/publicviewer/main.aspx#V1,600000,750000,0, learn and enjoy.
Michael

[PureDrop]

Again for the cartophiles, the OSI's 25" maps are back on-line since this morning.
Go to http://maps.osi.ie/publicviewer/
Select "Historic Layers", select "Distillery" and "Apply" and all the distilleries of the late 1800s are highlighted in red on the maps - zoom in and see where they were.
/M