The original whisky bible – a first edition copy of “The Whisky Distilleries of the United Kingdom” by Alfred Barnard – went under the hammer and was sold for $4,690 by London-based, Pernod-Ricard-owned Whisky.Auction.
In the 19th century, Barnard was secretary for Harper’s Weekly Gazette and went on a two-year journey [1885-1887] to originally publish features on each of them in the Gazette, however, after visiting 162 distilleries in Scotland, Ireland and England, he published his findings in 500-page book form as “The Whisky Distilleries of the United Kingdom”.
The book catalogs 129 distilleries in Scotland, 29 in Ireland and four in England and is typically used as a reference often for old and rare whiskies from the multiple distilleries that no longer exist.
Of all the distilleries listed in Barnard’s book, only 58 of the Scotland-based distilleries still remain in existence, while all but one [Bushmills] of the distilleries based in Ireland have closed along with all four England-based distilleries.
