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Built in 1700
According to the carved date-stone above the door, Captain John Grant built Easter Elchies House in 1700. However, the original house on the site, up on the bank of the River Spey, may be a century older.
Grant’s grandson, also named John, inherited Easter Elchies but later sold the estate to the Earl of Findlater and Seafield. In 1811 the deeds passed to Sir Lewis Grant of Grant, and once again the old House was under the ownership of its founding family.
Alexander Reid, a man known for his advanced methods of farming, began renting the house and farm in 1820. He established the first licensed distillery on the site, named ‘Macallan’ after the ancient church nearby. By the time he died in 1847, Reid had earned a reputation for the ‘superior quality’ of his whisky.
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Decline & Restoration
In 1857, the ancient pile was repaired and extended and became a 29 room T-plan mansion. From this date on, little is known about the fortunes of the grand old house, but by the 1960s it had fallen into such poor condition that there were moves – abandoned, thankfully – to demolish it.
In 1978, as the Whisky industry was coming out of a decline, the Macallan directors’ attention turned to restoring Easter Elchies House. By September 1985, at a cost of half a million pounds, the roof was rebuilt, two stone dormer windows were renewed and new stairs were installed.
2005 saw a further restoration so that guests could be accommodated and educated on The Macallan’s history. Three beautiful bedrooms were restored, a fireplace was re-opened in the hall and a magnificent oak table was commissioned, crafted from a tree that had fallen on the Estate. Since then, Easter Elchies has proudly hosted whisky connoisseurs from all over the world. The house has certainly had its fair share of ups and downs over the years, but like The Macallan itself, it survived and, ultimately, flourished.
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In The Beginning
For centuries, farmers in the area of the Easter Elchies Estate have been growing barley. Then, as now, the barley would be sown in the spring, grown through the summer, and harvested in the early autumn
In the winter, with little activity on the farm, the barley would be fermented and distilled into whisky. The cold, wet weather provided plenty of cooling water for the stills. The whisky would be drunk new, straight from the still. Any surplus was stored for consumption in the summer or transported to more distant markets. In the spring, the cycle would begin again.
At the nearby ford across the river Spey, directly below Easter Elchies House, cattlemen ('drovers') taking their cattle to the markets in the south would stop to rest and take refreshment from whisky distilled on local farms before crossing the river. From 1814 onwards, these drovers would have crossed the Spey downstream from The Macallan Estate via the famous Craigellachie bridge, designed by the great engineer Thomas Telford.
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The Estate Today
Today, the Macallan Estate covers 370 acres (150 hectares), Comprising land for growing our own barley to make The Macallan, pasture for sheep and cattle, woodland, and mown grassland to attract species of birds.
The river Spey, one of Scotland's most famous salmon rivers, borders the Estate to the south and south-east. The scale and diversity of the Estate is unique among distilleries and is managed in harmony with the beautiful landscape.
The Macallan Estate lies in an area of great natural beauty and is farmed sensitively in harmony with the environment. 95 acres are sown in March with The Macallan Estate’s Minstrel barley (a variety exclusive to The Macallan) and harvested in late August / early September for malting. The Estate farmland is very fertile, with light, alluvial soils, ideal for barley growing. A single acre will produce nearly two and a half tons of Minstrel barley, which will yield about 1,800 bottles of The Macallan.