Talisker Distillery is located on the shores of Loch Harport, at the village of Carbost on the Isle of Skye (Highland) and was established by the MacAskill brothers in 1830. It was named after the estate which Hugh MacAskill ran, centred at Talisker House, 3¾ miles (6 km) to the west southwest. The distillery produces a single malt whisky referred to as the "Lava of the Highlands", which is marketed as one of the Classic Malts of Scotland. Its water is drawn from twenty-one underground springs that rise on the nearby Cnoc nan Speireag (Sparrowhawk Hill). A fire destroyed the still house in 1960, but it was re-equipped with identical copies of the old copper stills to ensure the flavour of the whisky remained unchanged. There is no malting here, rather barley comes from the Black Isle, where it is malted at Muir of Ord. The distillery became part of United Distillers (1987) and subsequently Diageo (1997), it offers a guided tour of the facilities and a shop. Owing to its remoteness, the distillery had its own dedicated Exciseman, who lived with his family in an adjacent house. Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-94) mentions the whisky in his poem 'The Scotsman's Return From Abroad' (1880) - "The king o' drinks, as I conceive it, Talisker, Isla, or Glenlivet!"
