Meet Alfred Barnard, Whisky’s Greatest Historian

You might not be familiar with Alfred Barnard, but if you love whisky, you’re in for a treat.

Born in 1837 in rural Essex, England, Alfred Barnard might have been the world’s foremost authority on Scotch whisky distilleries, at least during his lifetime. A secretary for Harper’s Weekly Gazette, Barnard gave in to his Victorian-era wanderlust and embarked on a great journey in 1885: visit every single whisky distillery in England, Scotland, and Ireland. The trip took him three years, during which time he visited 162 different distilleries: 129 Scottish distilleries, 29 Irish distilleries, and four English distilleries.

But he didn’t just visit them: he wrote about them. One part technical manual, one part industrial history, one part travel narrative, The Whisky Distilleries of the United Kingdom instantly became the premiere reference for whisky lovers and propelled Barnard to a new career as a writer and whisky promoter.

Following the success of his first book, he undertook a great tour of the United Kingdom’s breweries, visiting more than 110 breweries in Great Britain and Ireland. The resulting book, The Noted Breweries of Great Britain and Ireland, was published in four volumes over the span of three years.

Even to this day, The Whisky Distilleries of the United Kingdom remains a valuable, relevant reference, not only to the historian, but also to the drinker. Barnard’s prose balances technical detail with the eager tone of a true enthusiast, and his colorful descriptions of the distillers, distilleries, and landscape of 19^th century Scotland are as evocative as they are entertaining. His description of the drive to Ardbeg Distillery, for instance, makes the thought of booking a flight seem very prudent indeed:

“The road mostly followed the coast line, but frequently a turn brought us almost to the water’s edge. The shore is mostly rocky and dangerous, in many places huge masses of rock rise from the surface of the sea, forming tiny islets round and over which the swell rises and falls in impressive grandeur. Every now and then as we drove along, the scene assumed a new aspect; now we would come. Suddenly upon some little picturesque bar fringed with fantastic and peculiar shaped rocks, or ascending a gentle hill some inland view of green slopes and heather covered hills would reveal itself, which lent a happy contrast to the wild sea-girt shore.”

The copyright on The Whisky Distilleries of the United Kingdom is long-expired, which means the entirety of the text can be happily perused online below – enjoy!