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This photo from the Scottish Natural Heritage Commissioned Report
148 is of the Traigh Muidhe Cleite which, as the map shows, is just below the Badbea burn.
The coastline behind the rock would be very near the cave the Badbea men made
their browst.
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The Utensils
"Well,
at the end of eight days we got finished with our “browst,” and dragged all the
stuff up the face of the rock in the dead hour of night, and concealed the
whisky, and all the utensils, including the “pot,” “worm,” and all in the
“Laid-More,” which being interpreted means the “big brae,” a very steep piece
of ground right below our house. There was nothing taken to the house belonging
to the “browst,” not as much as a bottle of whisky or a peck of draff. All the
draff when used was given at once to the cattle for fear of the gaugers. I
cannot see how the Excise could prosecute for the sake of a peck of draff,
there being no duty leviable on it, but the fact is they could do anything they
chose. So we guarded against every contingency, and left nothing in their
power".
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A description of these items by Ross MacLennan can be found
on this link. https://www.nts.org.uk/stories/the-illicit-still-game The
similar items used by the Gunns would have been a challenge to bury in the dead
of night in the ‘big brae’ beneath the house.
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The Laid-More beneath the Gunn’s
house.httpgeoscenic.bgs.ac.uk
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No Spoil No Pay
"About
four o’clock in the morning we got everything stowed away and went home to bed,
when next morning, before we managed to get up, who should stand at our bedside
but M’Dougall, the gauger from Lybster, and his man. Some well-wishers had
informed the gaugers what was going on, and they hired a boat from Lybster, and
landed in the cave at the foot of the burn just in time to find the ashes warm
in the fireplace, but nothing else. They expected, no doubt, to make a haul,
and when disappointed there, to find something at our houses by arriving so
early in the morning, but in this case they were mistaken, and all they got for
their pains was a stiff pull from Lybster and back a distance of 14 miles each
way. It was well enough known who the informers were, not the most respectable
in the locality, and such conduct was looked upon as most detestable. Whether
they acted in this manner from a love of filthy lucre I know not, but I know
they were disappointed. Had the Excise been successful I have no doubt they
might have been rewarded, but as there was no spoil there was no pay".
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The
Highland Whiskey Still (1827)
by Sir Edwin Landseer
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