One of the most interesting and exciting exhibits at the Lismore Gaelic Heritage Museum this season is an eighteenth century wine bottle salvaged in the 1980s from the Lynne of Lorne where it is thought to have lain for 200 years.
The Fair trading Bottle
Contrary to popular belief, the 18th century highland gentleman did not favour whisky – a “rascally liquor” according to Robert Burns – but preferred brandy and claret shipped from Bordeaux. Unfortunately, the Methuen Treaty signed by Portugal and England in 1703 had resulted in punitive duties on French wines so that English textiles would be accepted in Portugal. While this provided great stimulus to the wine producers in the hinterland of Oporto, it priced Bordeaux out of the market. However the Auld Alliance between France and Scotland meant not that whisky then became popular but that other means were needed to procure their favourite tipple and so the practice of “Fair trading” (or smuggling as the excise men called it) began to thrive.
In 1784 on the orders of a Mr. Duncan, a merchant of Renfrew, , the barque “Peggy” sailed from Portugal with a cargo of French wine and brandy, the brandy in port bottles and the Bordeaux hogsheads in Portuguese casks . The skipper was instructed to make landfall off Islay and proceed to the Lynne of Lorne to land part of the cargo in Appin where it was awaited by Campbell of Airds and the Stuarts of Appin. The Peggy dropped anchor in the lee of Eilean Dubh (the Black Isle) and awaited the skiff which would deliver its cargo. Unfortunately the excise men from Fort William were approaching just beyond Point on Lismore and, to save the cargo, the Peggy had to launch a small boat in the hope of hiding the fair trade in the rushes on Eilean Dubh. Alas, in the rush, the Peggy shipped so much water over the gunwhale it and went down in ten fathoms where it lay for 200 years.
The bottle now on display in the LismoreGaelicHeritageMuseum has been kindly lent for the season by Doreen and Roger Evans of Port Appin, they having bought it from Cala Crafts in Port Appin to celebrate their 25 wedding anniversary. The bottle itself had been salvaged in 1986 by Diving and Salvage experts R&J Grieve of Onich.