Royal Brackla

Fraser and four other men leased the site from the Earl of Cawdor, but they lost £2,500 in the first two years competing with smugglers, and Fraser carried on alone.^1,2,3 In 1826 Fraser sent his first 900 gallons of whisky to London, where wine and spirit merchant Henry Brett was his sole agent.^4,7 The warrant let Fraser use the Royal Arms on everything connected with the distillery, and Brett sold it as The King's Own Whisky.^1,2,4 Queen Victoria renewed the warrant in 1838.^4,5,7 In 1839 the firm William Fraser & Co took over the distillery.^5,6 Fraser died on 15 October 1846, and the distillery and farm passed to his son Robert.^4,5,7

Around 1860, Andrew Usher, who sold Brackla's whisky, used it in some of the very first blended whiskies.^4,8 In 1878 Robert handed the distillery to the firm Robert Fraser & Co and kept farming the land himself.^4,5,6 Wikipedia says the firm was reorganised as the Brackla Distillery Co Ltd in 1879; other sources date that company to 1897 or 1898.^4,5,6 Alfred Barnard's 1887 book describes two old pot stills, partly heated by steam coils, eight washbacks, and a malt kiln heated by peat.⁹ It made 70,000 gallons a year, all from home-grown barley, and had a farm of 320 acres attached.⁹ Usher, the distillery's agent, became a director in 1887.

In 1940 an airfield, RAF Brackla, was built beside the distillery for operational training and air gunnery; another source says 1941.^4,5,11 Wartime limits on barley for distilling stopped production from 1943 until 1945.^4,5 From 1964 to 1966 the distillery closed for a major rebuild, and steam heating inside the stills replaced hand-firing with coal.^4,5,6 Sources disagree on whether the rebuild closed its floor maltings or added new ones.^4,5,6 In 1965 it took over an underground water supply made for the wartime airfield and used it to cool spirit vapour.⁵