Morayshire Copper & Brass Works

The varied histories of individual whisky distilleries and their products form the core of any country's whisky heritage. But in addition to distilleries, a Scottish company closely linked to the distilling business has more than earned its place in the history of whisky in Scotland in particular and the world in general.

At the heart of each distillery are the stills, whatever their type, shape, size or material. Forsyths, based in Rothes on Speyside, has become virtually synonymous with still-making in Scotland and around the world and the following gives a brief overview of the birth of the company and its state today. My thanks are to Richard Forsyth, the Managing Director of Forsyths, for the information he so kindly gave me and the permission to use photos from the company brochure and to Dr. David “The Scotch Doc” McCoy for his permission to use a photo from his web-site (www.scotchdoc.com).

            Certainly since the mid 1800s there was a "Morayshire Copper & Brass Works", based in Rothes and owned by a man called Robert W. Baillie.

It is quite likely that this copperworks already existed earlier in the 19^th century and supplied stills and other copper materials to illicit distillers in the area. Baillie, or whoever ran the works before him would have been acting in very much the same way as Robert Armour in the area around Campbeltown. Given the distance, they would have been very unlikely to be competitors, though. According to a local story, Baillie was sued by a local lady for some 'breach of promise', which forced him to sell his copperworks in order to settle the case. Robert Willison bought the Rothes copperworks from Baillie to add to his businesses in Alloa, which catered for breweries and grain distilleries, and Sunderland, which was aimed at the ship building industry.

Forsyth's first involvement with the Rothes copperworks came in the person of Alex Forsyth, the grandfather of the present Managing Director. Alex Forsyth worked for Willison at all three of the Alloa, Sunderland and Rothes works. Willison retired when Alex Forsyth was a working manager in Rothes; because there was no one in Willison's family interested in taking over the business, the Rothes plant was sold to Forsyth in 1933 with the Alloa plant sold to R. G. Abercombie.

Alex's son Ernest served his apprenticeship at Rothes but World War II broke out, virtually closing the business as most men were enlisted and very little happened in the distilling industry. After the war, Ernest returned to revive the business and one of the innovations he introduced was the welding of copper stills instead of the traditional way of riveting. He had to overcome quite a bit of scepticism from distillery owners .....

            In the whisky boom years of the 1960s and 1970s, the company thrived and all possibilities for expansion were used up to continue serving the whisky industry. In the 1980s, when the whisky industry went into decline, Forsyths' plans for diversification came into action. With their expertise they moved into the oil and offshore business, the paper industry and pharmaceuticals, to name the main new directions. Also, in 1981, they bought out Grants Ltd. of Dufftown, their main opposition in the area and added their electrical and plumbing division to the company.

            Although Forsyths has diversified into other industries to be better able to cope with the cyclical nature of the whisky industry, serving the whisky industry will remain its core business. Forsyths has been involved in the building of distilleries on every continent except Antarctica and, closer to home, the pot stills of the youngest member of Scotland's family of whisky distilleries, Arran, were of course made in Rothes. Richard Forsyth told me that Forsyths has quite detailed information on the early history of the Rothes copperworks and Forsyths; writing all this up in a book at some point in the future belongs to the possibilities .... I told him he can certainly put me down for a copy!

© 2000 Alex Kraaijeveld