1st Whisky Era -- George Donald (1830 -- 1883)
George Donald was an exciseman from the Elgin area of Northern Scotland. In or around 1830 he leased land from the local landowner (the Mackenzie family) at Northfield, Annan, Dumfriesshire and began the process of creating Annandale Distillery. George, along with his son George Junior ran the Distillery for over 50 years.
During the 'Donald era' it seems that the distillery was powered exclusively by the flow of water and there is still physical evidence of the damns, sluices, gullies and mill wheel fixtures. (Many of these features are on land retained by the Robinson family but the Annandale Distillery Company will do everything it can to preserve these.) The motive power thus created would have milled the grist, revolved the tines in the mash tun and turned the rummagers in the stills. Flow of liquid through the various parts of the whisky making process would have been via gravity. Water would probably have been heated by coal, perhaps from the adjacent Cumbrian coal fields. (During the period from 1869 to 1933, there was a viaduct across the Solway Firth between Annan and Bowness-on-Solway).
Since acquiring Annandale Distillery, we've made contact with several of George Donald's descendents.