In August 2016, husband and wife team, Finlay and Eileen Geekie, packed up all their worldly possessions, left behind the hustle and bustle of Oxfordshire, where they’d lived for over 30 years, and moved to their newly completed, self-build house, to start a new life on the tiny, remote Hebridean island of Colonsay. Their new business provides them with the opportunity to combine their love of all things gin with their desire to create a viable future, living and working on this wild island, and, at the same time, make a significant contribution to the future sustainability and ongoing development of the local island economy and community as a whole.

In Celtic folklore, every house had a Brownie or Spirit, or in Gaelic, an Uruisg {oor-isk} to help with household chores. They were traditionally male, small in stature, illusive, and worked only at night. They became attached to particular families and estates, with whom they stayed for centuries. There are two at Wild Thyme Spirits; twins, Doughal & Ferghus

 They help ALVA, a delightful, red-haired maiden, a very special Brownie with supernatural powers, a Gruagach {groo-ah-gak}. Long, long ago she somehow survived when her Viking long boat crashed on the wild island’s unforgiving rocks. She stumbled ashore and took shelter at Tigh Na Uruisg {tee-na-oor-isk}, or Home of the Spirit, where she remains to this day. She uses all her powers to protect her secret recipes from those desperate to know. With an alchemist’s touch, she transforms humble botanicals into gin.