It could be said that John is a bit out of his element in Kintyre; or maybe he just found a new one to perfect.  Cheshire-born John made his way in the world of photography both in London and Manchester until 2000.  That’s when he sold his advertising studio and, along with his wife Michele, moved to Glenbarr on The Mull of Kintyre to the old cottage they had spent a decade renovating. To know that for most of his life he was decidedly urban and then get a voice mail apologising that when you called he was out plucking chickens seems the largest incongruity in the world.  His ability to rehab his home needed an outlet with that task complete, and after picking up some old whisky barrels from Springbank distillery in Campbeltown which were surplus to the firms’ requirements, he set to making garden tubs and some huge garden chairs.  Like many who make their home in Scotland’s most rural areas, a single road in and out is still the only means of reaching more populated areas of the Scottish Mainland, John lets nothing goes to waste.  The barrel staves leftover from the garden chairs standing in the barn were no exception. From a blackened old oak of a whisky barrel a secret jewel awaits John’s tender sawing, planing, turning and ultimately polishing; the smell of single malt that still lingers in the wood as he works it a special bonus.  In a world of disposable Roller-ball pens, John’s work renews our connection to the rarity of literacy, of reverence for the written word and the tools for creating art with a bit of ink and paper; and much more.

It starts, of course, with the making of Scotch.

Whisky or Scotch, but not Whiskey

Rome’s physical presence in Britain might have long been extricated from the island but as the lingua franca of early European scholars an ancient Latin translation has remained - with universal understanding - aqua vitae, the Water of Life, from the Gaelic uisge beatha more commonly known as whisky. 

Thank the Irish monks who arrived in Kintyre around AD500 for this remarkable gift of hospitality and economic benefit to Scotland.  The social significance of whisky marks the mundane and the celebratory. A dram will welcome travellers and the birth of a child alike, seal business deals, ease the burden of illness, revive a body after slogging through a peat bog, send guests off with ‘deoch an doruis’ (better recognised as 'one for the road') and, always, the dearly departed are remembered and wished Godspeed with copious amounts of whisky.  For lack of wine and bread, whisky, along with oatcakes, was even used to serve Communion before the Battle of Culloden. In contemporary society uisage beatha contributes over £2.2 billion in exports and some £1.8 billion to the domestic food and beverage industry - without Scotch, the United Kingdom trade deficit in this sector would increase by 40%.

When the first documentary evidence appears in the Scottish Exchequer Rolls in 1494 for, ‘eight bolls of malt to Friar John Cor wherewith to make aquavitae’ whisky had already been made in Scotland for centuries.  In 1505, the Guild of Surgeon Barbers in Edinburgh was granted a monopoly over the manufacture of aqua vitae - a fact that reflects that spirits were valued for their medicinal properties.  Scotland's great Renaissance king, James IV (1488-1513) was fond of 'ardent spirits' and treasury accounts for 1506 record a payment to a Dundee barber for ‘a supply of aqua vitae for the king's pleasure’. In 1527 Hieronymous Braunschweig’s book, The vertuose boke of Dstyllacyon, the first on the subject as whisky as a medicine, was translated and published in English.  With the ink barely dry on the Act of Union with England in 1707 the London based Parliament made both malt and whisky taxable; in 1777 there were eight licensed distilleries in Edinburgh and an estimated 400 unlicensed stills and by the 1820’s as many as 14,000 illicit stills were being confiscated every year.  The illicit stills had access to the best raw materials, few overheads and their home-made whisky became the basis for the high industry standards we enjoy today. Whereas, to pay the duty on their production licensed distillers cut corners and the quality of their product fell.  For some 150 years smuggling became standard practice with no moral stigma attached as ministers of the Kirk often made storage space available under the pulpit - any effective means to avoid the Excise men.  Ironically, the roadways built throughout the Highlands to enable the Crown’s soldiers to reach ‘troublesome areas’ subsequently enabled the smugglers to get their whisky to larger urban markets in the south where demand outstripped supply.  In 1823 the Excise Act was passed and over the course of the next decade smuggling died out almost completely. Many of Scotland’s great present day distilleries stand on out of the way sites used by those illicit stills of old. 

Scottish Whisky Regions

Similar to the French wine concept of ‘terroir’ each of the groups of single malt Scotch has its own clearly defined characteristics and according to the nuances of the distiller, the water, amount of time spent drying over peat smoke as well as what was aged in the oak casks previously. Michael Jackson, in his seminal volume Complete Guide to Single Malt Whisky, says, "The best Scotch whiskies taste of the mountain heather, the peat, the seaweed. They taste of Scotland, more obviously than even Cognac tastes of its region or the best Tequila of its mountain soil." The term Scotch is internationally protected; for a whisky to be labeled Scotch it cannot be produced anywhere except within Scotland’s borders.  Excellent whiskies are made by similar methods in England, Wales, Ireland and America and, notably, in Japan, but they cannot legally be called Scotch.  The seemingly simple ingredients of whisky are barley, an abundance of clear pure water and the rich earthy peat cut from the moors; all of these are used in their purest, unadulterated form.  The addition of yeasts and a multiple step distillation process which culminates in the aging of Scotch results in the amber coloured liquid enjoyed in over 200 countries.  It wasn’t always so, Scotch whisky was for long drunk as the water-white liquid that is still made in the Appalachia region of the United States today often by the descendents of 18^th century Scots immigrants. It’s thought that a forgotten puncheon is responsible for the regulation now governing the maturation of the Scotch in oak casks for a minimum period of three years.  The selection of casks has a profound effect on the character of the final whisky, thus used casks are needed. The most common source of casks is American whiskey producers, as U.S. laws require that both bourbon and Tennessee whisky age in new oak casks. Bourbon casks impart a characteristic vanilla flavour to the whisky. An important minority of whisky maturation occurs in sherry casks. This practice arose because sherry used to be shipped to Britain from Spain in the cask rather than having been bottled, and the casks were expensive to return empty and were unwanted by the sherry cellars. Sherry casks are more expensive than bourbon casks, and account for only seven percent of all casks imported for whisky maturation. In addition to imparting the flavours of their former contents, sherry casks lend maturing spirit a heavier body and a deep amber colour.  The Macallan Distillery goes so far as to build their own casks, leases them to the sherry cellars in Spain for a time, then has them shipped back to Scotland to ensure the unique aspects of their extraordinary whisky. The whisky continues to develop as it spends time in the wood, and maturation periods of twenty years or more are not uncommon. Each year spent in the wood reduces the alcohol content of the whisky as the alcohol evaporates through the porous oak the lost alcohol is known as the ‘angel's share’ thus the reason why the older the whisky, the more expensive it is.

Like many things in our globalised economy most distilleries are no longer owned by Scots whose forebears avoided The Crown on gravel tracks scattered across Scotland.  If Scottish ownership is important to you stick with Macallan, Glenfarclas, Bruichladdich and Bunnahabhain. Regardless of ownership Scotch remains critically important to Scotland’s economy so, Slainte Mhath, to your very good health or Sguab as e, polish it off.

Kilmaluag Cottage

The lands of Kilmaluag Cottage, where John and Michele now make their home have been inhabited for more than a thousand years.  Understandably there are remnants of the past under-foot (literally) and tales of old to match.  The most physical evidence (tied to whisky) comes from one Duncan McCallum, who is mentioned in the Sherriff's report of 1814-19 as being fined for illicit whisky distilling (along with just about everyone else in the glen) after being caught with a small amount of malt. Evidently the amount was too small for any other purpose than distilling! Michele, John’s wife, is always digging up old, thick glass whisky bottles; a small sample of the oldest ones is shown here means at the very least prodigious consumption of whisky was as much of a favourite pastime then as it is today.  Local records chronicle the existence of some 32 distilleries in Campbeltown during its hay day. Slainte!  In honour of this previous tenants’ passionate commitment to produce, and consume, copious amounts of Scotland’s favourite beverage (hopefully still ahead of IRU-BRU) John has developed a pen affectionately called Duncan’s Still. 

In 1306 Robert the Bruce made his way from his exiled refuge on Rathlin Island, just off the coast of County Antrim in Northern Ireland to the Mull of Kintyre on his way to his destiny at Bannockburn.  For anyone visiting this remote section of Scotland it’s not hard to imagine how without proper roads, still only one track in and out, or local assistance, that even Scotland’s King might have some difficulty navigating his way across this pre-historic landbridge.  Local oral history holds that the tenant farmer of Kilmaluag provided just such assistance not knowing (or caring) how great his guest. In turn he was thanked for his kindness by Bruce with a gift of a brooch; the brooch and story passed down through multiple generations of descendents still living in the area. 

Extending the life cycle of a whisky barrel

John Seddon doesn’t look at old whisky barrels the same way the rest of us do – with a certain level of longing for what was once inside. No, he sees usefulness - still.  And rather than add to global warming with carbon emissions emitted from the traditional burning of these barrels when they are no longer able develop the complex beauty of a fine single malt Scotch he crafts exquisite fine writing instruments from the re-claimed staves.  John acknowledges that one of the side benefits of his work is the ephemeral scent of whisky escaping from the wood; for the rest of us examples of sustainability that serve to remind us that we are all stewards of the planet. 

As previously stated, Kilmaluag Cottage happens to be where John Seddon and his wife Michele make their home.   Kil (from the Gaelic Cille) is a church, Maluag (or Moluag) after St. Maluag who was a contemporary of St. Columba. A quite ancient gravestone, with a simple crucifix which has been dated as early Christian, known as the Maluag Stone, once used across a drain in the byre! Going back to the fact that Irish monks arrived in Kintyre in 500AD this comes as no surprise.  As Gaelic always describes what is unique about a site in naming it there was probably a church located on the lands of Kilmaluag Cottage at one time. Thus, it seems fitting to honour the history of a small croft which played a tiny but significant role in Scotland’s history with one of John’s extraordinary hand crafted pens.  Incorporating a German made two-toned Rhodium (Rhodium being the most expensive of the platinum metals) and 24kt gold plated engraved writing nib which features a hand polished Iridium tip (Iridium being the most corrosion resistant metal known) with the beautifully grained oak of Springbank Distillery’s barrels and 24kt gold plated fittings that mirror the markings which can be found across Scotland on her most ancient stones.  John hand finishes the wood components with Renaissance Wax as developed by the British Museum the resulting soft glow is impenetrable.  The remarkable balance and weight of John’s pen is as heart stopping as the first every time you take it from it’s box; words – yet unexpressed – ache for release and to be put to fine paper.  For such an extraordinary pen John created a suitable presentation box of the same oak, also finished with Renaissance Wax. Each lined in Thistle & Broom Tweed woven by A. Elliot Fine Fabrics in Scotland’s Borders and featuring a charming ‘window’ of tweed on top of the box.  John burns his signature into the wood on the base and standard ink cartridges accompany the Kilmaluag Cottage Fountain Pen.

For more information and to order any of John’s work please contact Thistle & Broom at info@thistleandbroom.com or visit their award winning website www.thistleandbroom.com featuring the most extraordinary products available from Scotland all offered on the Fair Trade model (66% of the retail price goes directly to Scotland’s artist or craftsperson.) The purchase of any of John’s exquisitely made products (including his soon to be released pepper and salt grinders made of the same whisky barrels) through Thistle & Broom serve to jointly benefit the reforestation efforts of the John Muir Trust and Scottish Native Woods.

Click here if you'd like to order one of these magnificent pens!