If you go 7miles to the south from Thurso the very North of Scotland, there's a village called Halkirk, a village for the tourists to Caithness. There were many illegal distilleries by Thurso River that ran through the village in the late 18th century. Francis Swanson built Gerston Distillery by the river in the West side of the village. It was a very small distillery but the whisky of that was fabulous. The distillery was torn down after they finished distilling in 1882. Now, there are few blocks of stones by the river about 300 yards to the upper stream from Garston Farm and you can imagine the structures of those days.