“The Whisky Distilleries of the United Kingdom” by Alfred Barnard was published in 1887. It was a unique record of all the whisky distilleries then in production in the British Isles and quickly became the accepted classic work on the subject.  Barnard visited  no less than 160 distilleries and had many of them sketched by an accompanying artist. One hundred years later, Philip Morrice (author of “The Schweppes Guide to Scotch”) retraced Barnard’s journey and published in 1987 and in the Barnard format “The Whisky Distilleries of Scotland and Ireland”. His itinerary took in 123 distilleries. Of the distilleries visited by Barnard, 88 had disappeared by the time Morrice made his journey.  But 72 had survived at the same locations and 51 additional distilleries had been built in the meantime.

This web site brings Barnard and Morrice together and allows you to download from these scarce volumes the individual entries for each and every one of the 211 distilleries which, between them, they visited, albeit 100 years apart. And to complete each story, there is an up-date bringing the individual account of a particular distillery either up to its date of expiry or the present day, for those which survive.  And to complete each Journey, we include those distilleries which were built subsequent to Barnard's great sojourn but which had disappeared by the time Morrice followed in Barnard's footsteps, as well as the handful of distilleries which have been built post Morrice's 1985/6 journey.. The Great Whisky Journeys unfold through 12 itineraries, beginning with Itinerary I which covers the Glasgow area and the 16 distilleries which Barnard and Morrice visited between them (plus 3 which neither visited) and, where available, the whiskies from those distilleries.

The complete list of Itineraries is as follows:

Journey 1:        The Glasgow Area                                                              

Journey 2:        Campbeltown (including the Isle of Arran)                 

Journey 3:        Islay                                                                            

Journey 5:        The Far North                                                               

Journey 7:        Speyside: Strathspey                                                     

Journey 8:        Speyside: Glenlivet                                                         

Journey 9:        Speyside: Dufftown and Keith Area                             

Journey 10:      Perthshire                                                                      

Journey 11:      Central Scotland and the Deep South                            

Journey 12:      Ireland

You can either buy the entire e-book of 19 distilleries covered by "Journey 1: the Glasgow Area", or you can purchase the individual distillery chapters of interest to you. (The 3 "orphan" distilleries of Ardgowan, Gartloch and Bellfield come in a single download). Alternatively, you can obtain free copies of the downloads when you purchase certain whiskies associated with the distillery in question. Please visit the Whisky Cave to see where these offers apply.

Similarly, certain free distillery downloads come with some of the books we offer. Please visit the Whisky Library to see where these offers apply.

Some of the individual distillery chapters are illustrated, others are not. However, we charge a standard flat rate for all of the distillery chapters irrespective of length or whether they are illustrated. We shall up date each chapter as new and significant information comes to light. Similarly we shall add illustrations - particularly to the unillustrated chapters - as and when our research turns up suitable images.