For more than 100 years small steam-engined coasters known affectionately as “puffers” brought cargoes of malting barley, coal and empty casks to the distillery at Caol Ila, returning full whisky casks to the mainland through the Sound of Islay, the strait that separates Islay from Jura and which is know in the Gaelic language as Caol Ila (pronounced ”cull eela”). It’s close connection to the sea can also be found on the labels featuring a local seal.

The site was choosen by its founder Hector Henderson in the middle of the 19th century. One of his attractions was of course the plentiful supply of good, clean water from Loch nam Ban. From the surrounding rocks the distillery was built together with comfortable homes for the employees (the distillery still owns seven houses in the small village of Caol Ila).

Hector Henderson’s business was, however, less successful than his choice of site and the distillery was taken over by Norman Buchanan, owner of the Isle of Jura Distillery. In 1863 he sold it to Bulloch Lade & Co, of Glasgow, traders in whisky stocks at a time when blended whisky was increasing in popularity. They extended and improved the distillery and in 1879 built the pier for the puffers. By the 1880’s over 147,000 gallon (668,000 litres) of whisky was being produced each year.

In 1920 Bulloch Lade went into liquidation, along with many other Scotch whisky companies. After a couple of owner transfers Caol Ila ended up in the hands of United Distillers (today Diageo).