The Bankier Distillery Company in Scotland used to make a tasty single malt whisky using pristine, soft water drawn directly from a stream called Doup Burn. It was built in the year 1828, by Daniel Macfarlane, of Paisley, but previous to that time it was a noted corn mill. In 1903 the distillery was bought by James Buchanan & co. and was closed in 1928 but was retained as a maltings until 1968 and finally demolished in 1981.
The annual output was 150,000 gallons, the works were, however, capable of producing 180,000 gallons if required. The Whisky distilled was a quality spirit and was said to be of a most pronounced and excellent Highland style of Whisky.
The whiskey was fine and the distillery profitable until the day the water went bad.
Upstream from the distillery, John Young and Company had started pumping water out of its coal mines into Doup Burn. The water was still fit to drink, but its chemical composition had changed causing it to become too hard for whiskey making.
Bankier Distillery went to court, arguing that its rights as a riparian landowner had been violated, for the company possessed property on the ripa or bank of the stream. In 1893, the British House of Lords upheld a lower court’s decision to stop the mine’s waste water from flowing into Doup Burn, despite the fact that the water was still fit to drink. Lord Shand stated emphatically that it was not permissible for one man to use his property in such a way that it injured his neighbour. “The lower owner is entitled to have the water transmitted to him with its natural qualities unimpaired,” he said.
The riparian owner also has the right to water flowing in its natural course. Upstream landowners owners can’t remove water from the stream in such a way that it alters the flow to downstream properties.
If the riparian landowners choose to protect their water by turning to the courts, they will be seeking a legal recourse that has been tried hundreds of times in British common law. Riparian rights developed in the British courts as owners of river front properties fought the onslaught of water pollution during the Industrial Revolution and the introduction of piped municipal sewage in the 19th century.
While riparian law has been used more rarely in Canada, when it has been invoked it has proven to be an effective means of stopping water pollution all thanks to the Bankier Distillery case.
If anyone has more info they would like to share or old photos of the Distillery please share this info on the online log notes. Thankyou.
I have placed the cache near where the old western gates of the Distillery would have been near bonny water which was the landing place for the barley which came along the forth and clyde canal. There are still remains of the distillery but most overgrown, or covered in glass from the teenagers that now live in Banknock. There is also parking near to the cache where the old workmen cottages used to be on Wellpark Road. Happy Hunting Well done to Albalad on being FTF, on a lovely crisp morning.