Water of Life - Glenburgie Traditional Geocache
Water of Life - Glenburgie
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Size: 
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The cache is big enough for geocoins and small TB's.
The distillery has quietly nestled for over 180 years in a wooded valley, surrounded by typical Morayshire farmland. Its rooftops are barely noticeable from the busy Aberdeen/Inverness road, which lies just a few minutes' drive away!
Once at the distillery, it's easy to see why a malt whisky might be produced here. The natural surroundings are invigorating, with the salt filled air, blowing fresh from the Moray coast and the fine view that the distillery commands of the impressive northern hills.
The distillery was actually founded as long ago as 1810,by William Paul,but the distillery was then called Kilnflat.Production stopped in 1878.The distillery was renamed Glenburgie.
When Alfred Barnard visited it in 1887, he described Glenburgie in his book 'Whisky Distilleries of the United Kingdom', as "a very ancient distillery, and about as old-fashioned as it is possible to conceive".
Over the years a number of people have had ownership of Glenburgie but in 1936 it was bought by Ballantines, and since then it has been an important part of Ballantines and Old Smuggler Blended whisky.
The distillery was, in fact, quite unique around this time in that it had a manageress. Miss Margaret Nicol was the first woman to have a managing function in the whisky world. She retired in 1959.
Glenburgie Distillery is now under the ownership of Chivas Brothers Pernod Ricard.
Today, the distillery combines old with new. Some of the original buildings still stand, including a small building that used to house the original manager's office, the excise office and an incredibly small warehouse by today's standards. Indeed, whilst rebuilding and upgrading have taken place over the years the layout today is very similar to that of the original plan, but Glenburgie is very much a working modern distillery.
The distillery used to have a floor maltings, but this was discontinued in 1958. Now the malted barley is brought in from maltsters in the local area and sometimes further south. Huge silos store up to 276 tonnes of malted barley, from where it is weighed and screened for any impurities and then ground finely in a Porteus malt mill, in such a way as to achieve maximum extraction of sugars in the mash tun.
During his visit to the distillery in 1887, Alfred Barnard described the mash tun as being ten feet in diameter by three and a half feet deep. To accommodate today's requirements the traditional copper-domed mash tun is some 16 feet in diameter and five feet deep, with a capacity of five tonnes.
For a time, the distillery was actually producing two different whiskies, Glenburgie, and another malt, known as Glencraig, which was named after Mr William Craig, production director of Ballantines at that time. He was actually one of the few men to have a singlemalt named after him. Some Glencraig can still be found but it is unlikely to be distilled again as in 1981 the Lomond Stills were replaced by a pair of conventional pot stills.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Oruvaq na vil pbirerq cbfg