The Isle of Raasay Distillery, “the first legal distillery on Raasay” has recently released its first product, Isle of Raasay Gin. Raasay single malt whisky will be available to purchase in 2020.
While this is the first ‘legal’ distillery on Raasay, at least since exise tax laws were passed in 1788 and 1823, the ACFA surveys identified at least one site on the steep shoreline between Screapadal and Hallaig that was probably a still. Historical records document that people in Scotland were distilling whisky from at least the 16th century; it is only when the government decided to collect taxes on whisky that these practices were regulated. We don’t know whether the still south of Screapadal was illicit, or just pre-dated the exise laws but it was in a location that would have been easy to hide from anyone trying to regulate its use!
Early and illicit stills have been studied elsewhere in the Highlands and Islands; for example, the North of Scotland Archaeology Society discovered 50 still bothies in Strathconan!
You can learn more about the history of whisky distilling from the article on Strathconan, and from the Scotch Whisky Experience website.
Raasay Archaeology 