The forgotten blend
Tynron is a sleepy Scottish town and it once had its own whisky. Dave McFadzean goes in search of this unusual blend
It is almost two decades since I first heard tales of the whisky making that once took place in the sleepy hamlet of Tynron.
Some older folk could remember the hard stuff being produced and consumed around Tynron and who actually produced it.
However it remained an elusive mystery whether this business was a legal or illegal distillery or a blending and bottling operation.
Nestling on the banks of the Shinnel Burn it’s one of the last places you would expect to be famed for its former trade in whisky but further investigations proved that Tynron Kirk, as the village was previously known in past times, had a different story to tell.
It was suggested that the whisky came from an illicit still hidden on the wooded braes of Shinnel Glen.
Somewhat in desperation I contacted the modern Customs and Excise people in Dumfries to see if they could help me find information on this elusive whisky trade.
Roger Ede, one of the officials at Dumfries, is a keen and very helpful amateur historian, particularly on whisky related subjects.
Roger looked into past records for the Dumfries Collection and pointed out that no illegal whisky operations had been recorded in that vicinity. In the end it fell to the late Robbie Dobie to solve part of this whisky puzzle for me.
Robbie was a retired publican and whisky connoisseur who was born in Tynron.
“Whisky was never distilled up at Tynron,” Robbie disclosed. “Tynron Kirk Whisky was only blended and bottled there from whisky brought .....
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By Dave McFadzean
Section : Whisky History
Page number : 67
