Heritage
Learn more about Our heritage, history and area
- Celtic Sea Gods
- Robert the Bruce
- Distilling
Our Heritage
From the spirits of Celtic Sea gods, Robert the Bruce and the birthplace of modern distilling Clackmannanshire has a rich and diverse history.
The Celtic Gods
The name Clackmannan comes from the ancient stone that sits right outside and blesses our distillery from the Gaelic “Clack” meaning “Stone”.
The stone was originally considered a place of worship to “Mannan” or “Manau” the Sea god & goddess by the Celts who believed resided within the stone.
To place tribute, we sacrifice the finest Scottish sea salt to Mannan” & “Manau” in every batch of Gin and vodka, in return they offer us their blessing and conveniently this increases our spirits yields so we think it’s a fair trade.
The earliest written references to the stone are in 12th century and was originally by the shoreline near what is now Kennetpans which was originally known for its salt panning industries and once home Scotland’s biggest distilleries. The stone was relocated to the town square at some time in the 13th century possibly on order of King Robert the Bruce himself.


Robert the Bruce
Clackmannan was a royal residence for some 3 centuries the earliest of which was Malcolm IV in 1153.
The most famous of all Scottish Kings Robert the Bruce who secured Scotland’s independence from England at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314 has written records that Clackmannan Tower was a royal residence mainly used hosting dignitaries and its rich fauna and flora made this his preferred hunting grounds for much of his reign with written records stating this as his residence between 1323 & 1327 before he passed in June of 1329.
With ‘Look Aboot Ye Brae’ and the county motto ‘Look Aboot Ye’ are said to originate when Robert the Bruce lost his glove while out hunting. He sent his men to search for it, instructing them to ‘Look aboot ye’.

Birthplace of the Distillery
& Distilling Dynasties
Clackmannanshire is the birthplace of modern distilling being home to the Kilbagie and Kennetpans.
The first mention of a distillery in Clackmannan was in records dated 1713, whilst the exact date that the Kennetpans distillery isn’t known by 1770’s James and John Stein, farmers on Kennet estate, had established distilleries at Kilbagie and Kennetpans.
The Steins’s
Kilbagie and Kennetpans were the sites of Stein’s principal distilleries in 1776, producing at its peak more than 3000 tons of spirit annually.
The scale of these two distilleries where like nothing seen before them, these two distillers single handedly started the Scottish whisky industry and at height of their production paid more duty than was collected from the rest of combined Scotland annually.
The spirits transported from Kennetpans which had its own harbour were shipped far and wide. They shipped in such huge quantities to London that their whiskies we even re-compounded into Gin. Due to their size and power in the distilling industry England imposed punitive taxes on Scottish spirits to reduce the competition to English distillers.
Due to these taxes in 1786 the distillery owned by both the Steins where bankrupt whilst they struggled on for another 90 years they never recovered to their former glory and in 1871 Distillery at Kennetpans turned into a factory for making chemical fertiliser. Which didn’t succeed and which drew a close two once giants of the distilling industry.
The Haig’s
In 1751 John Haig married John Stiens daughter their five sons all severed their time as distillers at their uncles Kennetpans and Kilbagie distillers prior to branching out on their own distillery in Cameron bridge where the Haig brand was born which from 1930s to 1970s was Scotland’s bestselling whisky (now owned by Diageo) and is still the home to Europe’s largest distillery.
The Jameson’s
In the 1780’s John Stein owned two of the largest distilleries in Dublin, John Jameson of the local town of Alloa related to the Stein’s and Haig’s through marriage. He had worked in the family business prior to becoming general manager at Stein’s Dublin Bow Street Distillery in Dublin. John quickly forged his own identity in Ireland eventually buying the distillery from the Steins and forged own distilling dynasty from that point on.



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