Overview of Glenlivet

A scattered upland settlement on the west bank of the River Livet, 9 miles (13 km) southwest of Dufftown, Glenlivet gives its name to a noted malt whisky produced here in the heart of the Grampian Mountains. Once noted for its whisky smugglers, the first legal distillery was opened in the valley of Glenlivet in 1824 by George Smith of Drumin (1792 - 1871), that distillery moving from Upper Drumin to its present site in 1858. Blairfindy Castle (1586) to the south was a hunting lodge of the Earls of Huntly and to the east, near the Allt a' Choileachain, the Catholic Earls of Huntly and Erroll defeated a Protestant army led by the Earl of Argyll at the Battle of Glenlivet on 3rd October 1594.