Dictionaries of the Scots Language defines Arran water as a “jocular name for whisky distilled legally or illicitly in Arran” and cites this conviviality from James Stirrat’s Poems and Songs (1843): “Spend two hours o’ social clatter, Out owre a glass o’ Arran water”.
The 1845 Statistical Account for Ayr recorded: “Smuggling… has now for many years been almost totally abandoned, and beyond a few casks of Arran Water from the opposite shore, and a little soap from Ireland, is unknown”.
But smuggling was still a concern in 1910: “The late Mr Patrick Murray says: ‘No notice of Arran at this time is possible without a reference to the making and smuggling of the famous ‘Arran Water’” (Stonehaven Journal).
In 1995, Ayrshire Word reported: “With the recent opening of the £2.5m Arran Distillery at Lochranza, a tradition of whisky production is maintained … but this time it’s legal! ... Gillian McCreadie who runs Arran Whisky’s Visitor Centre … added: ‘Whisky is of interest to the islanders as Arran was involved in illegal trade for many years. We … managed to track down a Mr Lachie Mackinnon … to be there at the opening so that we could maintain a continuity with him and his forbears, William and Donald Mackinnon who were shot in 1837 for making their own “Arran water”’.”
And Arran still “holds its own secrets of the past … home to some of the illicit stills that produced the infamous Arran water in the days of early distilling on the island”. (The Herald, 2023).
Scots Word of the Week comes from Dictionaries of the Scots Language. Visit DSL Online at https://dsl.ac.uk.
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