In 1823, The Spirit Act was passed - after much hard work from the Duke of Gordon who had the most illegal distilleries on his land. He knew about these, but was reluctant to give them up and risk losing tenants. He also realised that whisky was always going to be produced and sold and that it was simply a matter of reforming the law so that parties on either side could benefit financially from distilling. And so the history of legal distilleries was born.