SIT yourself down in the Great Hall and listen to a dream I had. In it I am sitting on the high throne of Oswald, King of Northumbria in its 7th century golden age. In my hand is a green glass claw beaker that is two centuries older. I am sipping mellow Tacnbora whisky; it signifies ‘standard bearer’ and is a taste of things to come at Ad Gefrin, Brittonic for ‘By the Hill of Goats”.

Re-enact history at Ad Gefrin

The precious beaker

The Northumbrian hierarchy, who built this summer palace in a place now known as Yeavering, fed off portentous dreams. These foretold the Vikings sailing in to ravage their region. You know, the sacking of Lindisfarne, then the monks, who fled with the body of their bishop, St Cuthbert, and eventually founded Durham, in whose cathedral he lies. Such a rich history in this corner of North East England.

Now my dream dissolves, though the taste of Tacnbora lingers long. It is a blend of Scottish and Irish whiskies that is holding the fort while the Ad Gefrin (pronounced ad-jef-rin) brand’s own single malts come on stream. An ‘usquebaugh’ to usurp the traditional monopoly in these isles of the Scots versions.

The spectacular atrium

The inter-active museum

Why Ad Gefrin holds a mirror to Northumbrian history

Fascinatingly this family-run fledgling distillery in Wooler, which opened in 2023, has its own Anglo-Saxon Museum/Visitor Experience attached and the throne is just a re-enactment prop; the beaker is on show here but there’s no way I’d be allowed to drink from the fragile ancient object which is on long-term loan from the British Museum.

The presence of this and other artefacts, some from the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, is a triumph for museum director Chris Ferguson, a member of the family and an Oxford Archaeology DPhil. From the moment you enter the atrium foyer you are hit with a special timeless feel. Dressing up in Anglo-Saxon gear is not compulsory, mind.

Chris Ferguson, museum mastermind

Distilling master Ben Murphy

The symbiosis of history and a spirit crafted from local grains and pure water is quite deliberate. The goat logo over the state-of-the-art premises links with the Venerable Bede chronicling the 7th century practice of a king being accompanied by a standard bearer carrying a staff crowned with a goat’s head,

Wooler, ’Gateway to the Cheviot Hills’ and on the St Cuthbert Way trail, lies just four miles from the Great Hall/Summer Palace site first discovered from the air in 1949.

This clasp is gorgeously crafted

A shield bioss from the Shakespeare Trust

The beaker comes from further afield and is a story in its own right. It is of delicate  greenish-blue glass, possibly recycled from Roman shards, with a double row of pincered decorated claws reinforcing it. It stands some 20cm high with a 40cl capacity. Imported from Frankish glass-makers and unique in the UK, it is undoubtedly a luxury object, certifying the status of the figure, in whose coffin it was found. This was back in 1775 at Castle Eden in Co. Durham.

(Apparently, you can live the dream. There is a UK firm that has replicas of the beaker made in the Czech Republic)

Being a words man, my favourite part of the Anglo-Saxon visitor experience was displays of kennings. These two-word phrases are most prominent in the epic poem Beowulf, but cropped up in humbler settings. The sea is the whale-road, warriors are shield-holders, wael-stow means slaughter place (battlefield). Speech itself is word-hord. Visitor-friendly does not have the same ring.

State of the art distilling equipment

The kennings that define the language

You don’t have to join Ad Gefrin’s ‘Corenkyn’ roster of members to get at a taste of this hugely ambitious project, built on the site of a derelict haulage yard. Take a tour and an informative tasting. The on-site food is excellent, too. Don’t neglect first to visit the museum and if the historical urge really is upon you book an off-grid whisky walk in the Cheviot uplands to see the crannies where moonshine distillers of the past such as Black Rory plied their rot-gut trade back in the 18th century. 

The Yeavering site

Seeking out the illicit stills of the past

Contrast with the sophisticated equipment in the hands of head distiller Ben Murphy and his access to superior raw materials – Diablo barley, grown within 20 miles and malted in Berwick-upon-Tweed. Ad Gefrin’s own borehole provides the pure water needed. The hand-picked casks come from much further afield. Core maturation will occur in ex-Bourbon and ex-Oloroso barriques and, innovatively, in new Normandy oak hogsheads. Sauternes and Amarone barrels also feature. 

Serious stuff as well as a great day out. It is an hour’s drive north from Newcastle upon Tyne. If you’re tasting, sort a designated driver!