So in a bid to do just that, The Tiree Whisky Company launched a whisky titled The Cairnsmuir - a 19 year old Speyside malt. As the latter two theories suggest, the economy of Tiree has been based on the production of grain since ancient times. Renowned for fertile and easily worked soil and long growing seasons, the island was unique in the Hebrides. Along with this corn production, Tiree was famous for the production of whisky – made from the island’s plentiful supplies of barley. Each farm on Tiree usually had one still producing whisky, for both local consumption and for export to neighbouring islands and Ireland. Records suggest that there were fifty distillers on the island around 1768, declining to around three by 1793. We got a tasting panel together and there was no shortage of applications”, Ian laughs. “We’ve got a good team of friends who tried it - Daniel and Stuart and even some famous musicians, such as Ian Bayne from Runrig.” The island of Tiree is the most westerly of the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. It is a relatively low-lying island with an area of 7,834 hectares and a population of around 650. Distillers from across Scotland have been selected, with those on the picturesque Hebridean island of Tiree offering up one of the festival’s most far flung gins.

We formed Tiree Whisky Company to preserve and promote the island’s distilling heritage and from that moment on, we began researching the possibility of releasing a local gin. We were put in touch with Thames Distillers Ltd in London and arranged a meeting to provide them with some local Tiree botanicals and kelp. In the build up to TMF 10, Stuart and Daniel - the festival organisers - got in touch with myself and Alain with an idea to mark the anniversary. We decided to source a cask from Speyside, and the whisky went into cask around the same time as plans for the first ever Tiree Music Festival were taking shape. Now, ten years on, about 380 bottles are available to celebrate the milestone,” Ian says. Known as Tyree and not Tiree is another nod to the island’s history, as Ian explains: “Tyree was a historical form of spelling for the island while the modern spelling of Tiree first appeared on a map of Scotland by John & Frederic Tallis in 1851.” Creating a whisky for Tiree Music Festival Every day at the gin school we see creative individuals and guide them, working with hundreds of different botanicals to distil something amazing for them, to suit their own style and palate. Would all the recipes appeal to me, perhaps not, though I’d give most a go, but we all have our go-to styles and if we can help people create something special for them, then that is the joy of being an experience provider!We launched the gin in the 2017 Tiree Music Festival and sold out about 1,000 bottles I think. It was brilliant.” Working with specialist spirits branding agency, Stranger & Stranger, the ‘Social Distillery’ has created something which is the envy of many. They wanted to produce something which depicts the truly stunning scenery found on the island – and what a job they’ve done! The whisky was named after a ship that ran aground off the shores of the island and it has cases of whisky - a story similar to Whisky Galore,” says Ian. We launched that at the Tiree Homecoming and only bottled 230 which all sold out. That was the first step - to publicise the whisky company and to let people know what we were doing.” Starting with gin Picture: Tyree Gin Facebook Tyree Gin (40% ABV)includes wild flowers such as eyebright, ladies bedstraw and water mint among its botanicals; all of which are all sustainably sourced from the fertile machair along the island’s coastline.

We’ve had a number of obstacles to overcome over the years, in particular when it came to establishing the distillery on the island. As mentioned, our distillery is based in West Hynish in Tiree, which is one of the most remote corners of the island (on an already remote island!). Tyree (the old spelling of Tiree) Gin was created to celebrate the stunning landscape where it is distilled. Produced using Kelp harvested from the icy waters and a range of botanicals from the machair ground inland from the shore of the island combined with juniper, water-mint and angelica, this is a fresh, pure island spirit. Coming home This link with the music festival continued this year with the bars serving Tyree Gin and launching an exclusive bottling of TMF10 whisky - created to mark the festival’s tenth year. I have a very keen interest in local history and one thing that kept on popping up while doing various research projects on aspects of Tiree’s history was the amount of distillers that operated on the island between the 18th and 19th Centuries (both legally and illicitly!).Launching in stores from the 26 May, the Scottish gin festival features a range of twelve spirits, including four expertly mixed, ready-to-drink cans, that offer gin lovers floral and fruit drinks that are ideal for warmer weather. Tiree Whisky Company is the producer of Tyree Gin and Hebridean Pink Gin, both of which are handcrafted and bottled on the Inner Hebridean Isle of Tiree. There are many theories as to where the name Tiree is derived. Professor William J Watson, who published The Celtic Place Names of Scotland in 1926, argues that the second element of Tir-iodh is likely to be Heeth, a name from the Iron Age or earlier which is not Gaelic, possibly not even Celtic. More common theories have suggested that the name derives from ‘Tir-iodh’ which means ‘land of corn’, or possibly ‘Tir-I’ the land or granary of Iona. Tyree Gin truly reflects the landscape in which it is distilled. Kelp harvested from the icy waters provides sweetness as well as coastal salty flavours and floral, grassy and vanilla notes are achieved using a range of botanicals from the machair ground inland from the shore. The sign of a true craft gin is that no two batches will ever be exactly the same, and this can be said of el:gin, a Scottish Gin, distilled in small batches in the northeast of Scotland, each batch distilled with hand-chosen, local botanicals.

As the first legal distillery on the island for over 200 years, and with so many links to the history of Tiree, what does the future hold? Chair of the judging panel, Adam Hardie, Partner and Head of Food and Drink at Johnston Carmichael, said: “It continues to be a very tough and challenging year but many are not just surviving but excelling. The gin embodies the very best in craft production, sourcing botanicals from across the island and nearby areas to create an exceptional gin that lends itself to life on the Scottish isles. This was until island locals, Alian Campbell and Ian Smith formed the Tiree Whisky Company to preserve and promote the island’s whisky heritage. Following on from the success of their first spirit, The Cairnsmuir – a limited edition 19-Year-Old Highland Single Malt Scotch Whisky, Tyree Gin was launched in 2017. A gin to reflect the island Meanwhile, just across the water, Isle of Islay Gin also takes inspiration from sunny local blooms with its deliciously differentNerabus Gorse Gin (40% ABV).Noted for its smoothness and strength (just like its namesake), Whitetail Gin sells to customers including Selfridges and British chef Marco Pierre White.

Distilled with passion, it launched its first award-winning signature gin, which captures the flavour of the Cairngorms.

The brand is named after George Chinnery, the English painter, who began his career in Dublin, before travelling to China. The bottle is inspired by these two parts of his career – Georgian Dublin and Imperial China. And now, after eighteen months of contract distilling in London by Thames Distillers. The company is celebrating the release of the first island-distilled batch of Tyree Gin. Sales of the London-distilled gin helped to fund the renovation of an industrial shed in West Hynish in the southwest of the island and a 250-litre G-Still was installed there in late 2018. They produced a sample gin using the botanicals we’d sourced and after a couple of tweaks, we finalised the recipe. We then officially launched at Tiree Music Festival 2017. was a big year for Trail West too as it is our 10th Anniversary. We’re hoping our first headline show in the Barrowlands in Glasgow in September still goes ahead so we’re keeping all of our fingers and toes crossed! The plan is to have a quieter year with the band next year and things should be more manageable then… Hopefully!” Almost 200 gins - all distilled in Scotland - were blind tasted this year and medals awarded in 11 categories.