by Paul Matheson

The days are getting longer, with the prospect of warmer days on the horizon. With the promise of spring comes the urge to go on wee jaunts and pleasurable excursions. I’d like to recommend one such trip: a visit to Lindores Abbey Distillery 

Lindores Abbey Distillery is built on the site of the ruins of a medieval abbey. It has a beautiful visitors’ centre which has striking displays and absorbing guided tours that describe the history of both the distillery and the original abbey.

Lindores Abbey

The malted barley spirit that is known today as ‘whisky’ takes its name from the Gaelic ‘uisge beatha’, which is the Gaelic translation of the Latin ‘Aqua Vitae’ – the Water of Life. We know that distilling was taking place at Lindores Abbey in Fife at least as early as 1494. The earliest written reference to Scottish whisky appears in the Exchequer Roll of 1494, and it states that Friar John Cor, a monk of Lindores Abbey, was commissioned by King James IV to make Aqua Vitae from 8 bolls of malt. (8 Bolls of malt is nearly 500kg: enough to produce hundreds of bottles of Aqua Vitae).

Paul Matheson is a music reviewer and diversity officer with the police.