Old Photograph Bridge Street Halkirk Scotland

Old photograph of children, house and cottages on Bridge Street in Halkirk, Caithness, Scotland. Halkirk has had two whisky distilleries, Gerston from 1796 to 1885, and Ben Morven from 1886 to circa 1911. Both were established on the banks of the River Thurso, near Gerston Farm, and both drew water from Calder Burn. The Ben Morven distillery was named for the mountain of the same name. The original Gerston distillery was first registered by a Francis Swanson, and was expanded by two sons, John and James, in 1825. Sir Robert Peel is said to have acquired a taste for the whisky. The distillery closed not long after it was sold to new owners in 1872, and a London company, calling themselves the Gerston Distillery Company, decided to build a new distillery. In 1897 the new distillery was sold to Northern Distilleries Limited, who gave it the Ben Morven name. It was never very successful, and it closed around 1911. The stillhouse is still standing.





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