IT’S NOT famed for its grain production, but the island of Raasay now has a crop growing to assess its suitability for being used in the island’s first legal distillery.

Craft whisky makers, R and B Distillers, are in the process of building a new distillery and have the long-term ambition of using all-local ingredients – water, peat and barley – to give the new whisky a special terroir.

R and B wanted to establish whether it would be possible to grow and ripen barley suitable for whisky making on the island. With a Celtic well on site, providing access to high mineral content water, plus a plentiful supply of peat, the company was curious about creating a truly local whisky, like some of those produced on Islay.

This past April, trial plots of barley were sown using five different barleys – the ancient bere barley, current leading variety Concerto, plus Tartan, Iskria, Kannas.

R and B hopes to identify those that ripen well in the sometimes tempestuous climate and yet be low enough in moisture content to malt. The plan is to send the harvested crops away to be malted using Raasay peat.

The barley will then be returned to the distillery and used to create a lightly-peated Raasay single malt.

So far, this project has relied mainly upon the island resources, like the stone used to build walls and wood from the site will be used for furnishings within it. But, said a spokesman, the most valuable resource has been the local community and its knowledge of island water, distilling history, building expertise, local infrastructure and hospitality.

For the barley project, the advice and support of neighbouring local farmer, Andrew Gillies, has been vital. Along with John Gillies and Alasdair MacAskill, he has ploughed, disced, rolled and drilled the land, which has also been treated with lime and fertiliser.

The project has also called upon the knowledge and help of Peter Martin, of Highlands and Islands University’s agronomy department.

If the trials are successful, R and B intends to hold an open day for local farmers and crofters to see the results as well as hear about the future of barley growing on Raasay. It may offer local farmers and crofters a guaranteed end customer for any future cropping.

This supply chain offer could also include growers on Skye, or Kyle.

The ultimate long-term objective is to grow enough local barley on Raasay (plus Skye and Kyle) to produce a single malt from 100% locally grown barley.

A spokesman added: “While acknowledging that this whisky may only be a small percentage of total production, R and B is keen to challenge the limitations of production in such a remote and unusual location.”

And we’ll all say ‘cheers’ to that!

The varieties:

Bere barley was grown on Raasay 40 years ago and is a traditional and early maturing Scottish six-row barley (it was harvested 21 days earlier than Concerto in Orkney, in 2016).

Concerto is the most widely grown two-row malting barley, but is later than average maturing.

Tartan, a two-row barley, had a provisional recommendation for distilling and was grown for several years in Orkney for Highland Park Distillery.

Iskria is a two-row Icelandic variety, similar in maturity to bere.

Kannas is a very early Swedish two-row variety, again similar in maturity to bere.