They said I’d need earplugs and they were right: this is intense, it’s full-on and it’s loud. At one end of the room, a metal vat is being hoisted into the air by a giant winch; at the other, an apprentice is bashing away at a sheet of copper with a hammer as big as Thor’s. The soundtrack is the roar of the winch, the boom of the hammer and the rumble and crash of all the other work that’s going on. Ear plugs were definitely a good call.

But this is what it takes to build a distillery – it’s hard-core and it’s loud – and the really remarkable thing is that, in some ways, things haven’t changed much since the old days. On the wall of the office there’s a picture of a team of workers from the 1890s including the founder of the firm, Alexander Forsyth, looking very Thomas Shelby with cheekbones and a jaunty cap. But what’s really striking is that the men in the picture are holding hammers just like the ones the apprentices still use today. A lot has changed about Forsyths but a lot has stayed the same.

The man who’s showing us round today is Richard Forsyth, the latest in a line of Forsyths to run the place, and he’s keen to point out the piping and vats and tech that will become part of the new Cabrach distillery in Moray. In the storeroom there are helter-skelter towers of piping and rows of funnels, and out in the yard the big copper stills that are about to be shipped out. It won’t be long now.

A few miles down the road, the distillery itself is also starting to take shape. This used to be a farm – sitting in the middle of 170 acres in one of the most remote and under-populated parts of Scotland – but now the steadings are being transformed into the new distillery. In the next few weeks, the hardware and stills at the Forsyths workshop in Rothes will be brought up here and installed in the newly refurbished buildings. And then the best bit: they’ll start making whisky.

For the people involved in the social enterprise that’s bringing whisky back to this place, The Cabrach Trust, it feels like it’s long overdue. There was a time when whisky distilling thrived in this beautiful part of the north-east, particularly the illegal distilling of the old days. Partly, it was because of the remoteness of the place; it created a rebellious spirit that meant the locals were prepared to hide and protect whatever the establishment didn’t like: Jacobites, smugglers, illegal stills. The whisky of the Cabrach came with a taste of the hills but also a taste of the illicit.

Then, in time, when the official licensing of distilling was introduced in the 19th century, the legal distilleries took over and for a while there were three of them in the Cabrach. By the start of the 20th century however, revolution and change was having its effect: the industrial revolution meant many people had moved to the towns and cities; all the little crofts were also swallowed up into bigger farms supporting fewer people. There was a time when 1,000 people lived here; today, it’s fewer than 100.

The other factor was the First World War, which had a disproportionate effect on the Cabrach. I visit the beautiful little parish church, perched up on a hill, and there on the wall are the names and ranks of the boys and men who died between 1914 and 1918. There were nine of them in all but in a community as small as this one, the effect was huge. And in some ways, it’s never really recovered.

Which is why the ambitious plans for the Cabrach Distillery are so welcome here. The area is already a beautiful and interesting place to visit – I’d particularly recommend a stop-off at The Grouse Inn where you can browse (and sample) the extraordinary array of whiskies they have lining the walls – but when the distillery is up and running it will provide another good reason to come to the Cabrach. As well as the distillery itself, there’ll be a visitor centre and a café and the trust is supporting other attractions including a new discovery trail. It has also helped relaunch the Cabrach Games, which used to be a staple of the community but hadn’t been held for nearly 90 years.

Speaking to the staff of the trust, it’s obvious they have a clear vision and are keen to get on with it. We meet in the old smiddy on the farm, which has been restored as a rural skills centre and hub for community activities, and over tea and biscuits (and a dram of course) they tell me what they aim to do here.

It’s about recognising the significance of the Cabrach, they say, and the history and the heritage of the place but it’s also about their strong feeling that the distillery can help turn the tide on the decline. In other words, it’s about the past. But it’s also about the future.

And travelling round this remote, striking part of the country, I see why it matters. I chat to Mhairi behind the bar at the Grouse and she tells me about the pub in its heyday: how it was packed to the gunnels and the night they did a conga round the pub and eightsome reels in the car park; it’s a great wee pub and the aim is to get the visitors coming again in greater numbers. They could pop into the Grouse for a pint (and maybe a slice of Mhairi’s chocolate and rose cake) and take a trip up to the distillery for a bottle of the new Cabrach whisky.

Happily, the day when you’ll be able to do that is not so far away: the distillery is due to open in November, with the first bottles of whisky on sale in due course, and it’ll be quite a day. There was a time when whisky was distilled in every hidden nook and cranny of this place and the memories and history are still deeply felt by the locals and the descendants of those who left and who now form a Cabrach diaspora around the world. It’s good to think that some of them will be drawn back by the transformation of the old steadings into a distillery. But it’s good to think as well that other visitors will come here for the first time. Not many people are familiar with this quiet and beautiful part of Scotland. Now is a good time to get to know it.

 

Mark Smith was a guest of The Station Hotel, New Street, Rothes. www.stationhotelspeyside.com. 
For more information on The Cabrach Trust, visit cabrachtrust.org