Helen and Elizabeth Cumming: The Women Who Made Cardhu

Helen Cumming helped establish the farm distilling business that became Cardhu; her daughter-in-law Elizabeth rebuilt it and negotiated its future with John Walker & Sons. Their achievements belong to different generations: Helen’s story begins with the Cummings’ farm lease in 1811, while Elizabeth took charge after her husband Lewis died in 1872.[1][5][8]

Helen Cumming and the beginnings of Cardhu

The starting point is a farm, not a licensed distillery. At Whitsunday 1811, John Cumming took a 19-year lease on Cardow Farm in the parish of Knockando, near the River Spey. Diageo’s archivist Jo McKerchar puts it carefully: “We can trace the Cardhu story back to 1811.”[1][8]

The producer describes John and Helen’s enterprise as a cottage business. Later trade histories place John principally on the farmland and Helen in the household and at the still; McKerchar likewise says Helen probably did the distilling while John managed the farm.[1][6][12] That division of work gives Helen a substantial place in the story without requiring her to have held the licence.

The distinction matters because the dates describe different beginnings. In 1816, John was convicted three times for illicit distilling, according to Gavin D Smith’s history for the Scotch Malt Whisky Society. Cardow’s licence followed in 1824, in John’s name. Alfred Barnard’s account, published in 1887, also records the licensing year and the illicit distilling that preceded it.[7][8]

Calling Helen simply “the founder” compresses those stages into one claim. Diageo’s anniversary account calls Helen and Elizabeth founders, whereas its archivist says Cardhu cannot claim a female founder on the basis of the licence, which belonged to John.[1][4] The founder claim is Disputed: the disagreement concerns what founding means here, not whether Helen contributed to the business.

Story box: A farm business rebuilt across generations

The red flag and the woman behind it

John was convicted three times for illicit distilling in 1816.[8] A later story says Helen fed visiting excisemen, then raised a red flag to warn neighbouring illicit distillers. Its verdict is Legend: the producer and trade writers repeat it, but no contemporary record was found establishing the incident.[1][3][4]

The attribution is also disputed. Diageo and most accounts identify Helen; an STV report gives the cooking and flag-raising to Elizabeth.[2][4][5] That difference should not be silently repaired by blending the accounts. It shows how readily a story attached to one generation can migrate to another.

Legend verdict: The warning flag

The flag need not carry the whole weight of Helen’s reputation. The farm lease, illicit distilling convictions and subsequent licence provide a firmer chronology for the business in which the archivist places her work.[1][8] They are less theatrical than the warning signal, but more useful for understanding how Cardow began.

Lewis connects the two generations

Helen did not hand the distillery directly to Elizabeth. Lewis, John and Helen’s eldest son, was 21 when the licence was granted, and it was later held in his name. In 1832 he wrote to Portsmouth wine and spirit merchants Hickley & Victor about his still and his use of peat.[8]

That letter gives the intervening generation its own place in the story. John died in March 1846, aged 72; Lewis remained central to Cardow’s history until his death in February 1872, aged 69.[8] Remembering him prevents the two women’s achievements from being turned into a misleadingly simple succession.

Elizabeth was the daughter of a local farmer and 24 years younger than Lewis. She was pregnant when he died, and their five-year-old daughter died three days later.[3][8] The producer dates Elizabeth’s takeover to 1872, placing her management of the distillery in the immediate aftermath of those losses.[5]

Elizabeth Cumming builds a new distillery

Alfred Barnard’s account supplies the clearest contemporary portrait of Elizabeth’s industrial achievement. He names “Mrs. Cumming” as “the proprietress of the Distillery” and describes the old buildings as “of the most straggling and primitive description”. Much of the work was still done by hand.[7]

Elizabeth obtained a feu, a permanent grant of land, beside the old works. A new distillery was built there “on the most approved plan”, in Barnard’s words.[7] This was more than the continuation of an inherited household enterprise: his account records a proprietor replacing inadequate premises with a purpose-built operation.

Trade histories date that rebuilding differently, with Smith giving 1884 and The Whiskey Wash describing work between 1884 and 1886.[8][11] Barnard’s published description establishes the essential point without needing to settle every construction date: by 1887, the new works formed part of his account of Cardow.[7]

His description also shows what the whisky was being made to do. He called old Cardow whisky “admirably adapted for blending purposes” and said it was sold mainly in Leith. Peat and water came from Mannoch Hill, with the water carried through about 3.2 kilometres of pipes (two miles).[7] These details place Elizabeth’s rebuilding within an existing production and trading business.

Elizabeth also trademarked the Cardhu name, according to the producer and its archivist.[1][6] Cardow remained the name in Barnard’s account and at the sale to Walker, so the two names should not be treated as though one had always displaced the other.[7][8]

A sale negotiated, not simply accepted

Elizabeth was not merely waiting to sell. On 4 January 1886, she wrote that she could not consider a sale because she had three sons to provide for, according to Smith’s history.[8] Her position makes the later agreement a decision to explain, rather than an inevitable ending.

That year brought another family loss: her eldest son, Lewis, died. His brother John left medical school at Aberdeen to run the distillery for her.[8] The family’s future and the business’s management were therefore closely connected before the Walker agreement was signed.

On 19 September 1893, the Cummings signed the sale of Cardow to John Walker & Sons Ltd. The reported terms retained John as manager and gave him a shareholding and a seat on the Walker board.[2][8] The family continued the distillery’s day-to-day running after the sale.[9]

McKerchar also credits Elizabeth with insisting that workers remain and that their housing be improved, including electricity.[1] Taken together, these accounts describe negotiations concerned with continuity for her son and the workforce, not simply the transfer of a distillery.

Elizabeth died suddenly on 19 May 1894, aged 67. A local obituary quoted in Smith’s history called her “A true friend of all the poor”.[8] That tribute belongs beside the rebuilding and negotiations, rather than replacing them with a general portrait of generosity.

A chronology worth keeping straight

The distinction between the women is what makes their shared history interesting. Helen belongs to the farm enterprise and its transition from illicit to licensed distilling; Elizabeth’s record includes rebuilding, naming and negotiating the business’s future.[1][6][7][8] Neither contribution needs the other woman’s achievements borrowed to make it significant.

Where to go next

• The Women Who Changed Whisky History: place the Cummings within the wider history.
• Bessie Williamson: From Secretary to Owner of Laphroaig: follow another woman’s route to distillery ownership.
• Alfred Barnard's Great Whisky Journey of the 1880s: explore the writer whose contemporary description helps establish Elizabeth’s work.

Sources

1. The Sunday Post. Cardhu marks 200 years by celebrating pioneering women at its heart then and now. Undated edition supplied in the fact sheet. https://www.sundaypost.com/fp/cardhu-marks-200-years-by-celebrating-pioneering-women-at-its-heart-then-and-now/
2. STV News. Distillery shines a light on the important women in its past. Undated edition supplied in the fact sheet. https://news.stv.tv/highlands-islands/distillery-shines-a-light-on-the-important-women-in-its-past
3. Whisky Magazine. Whisky pioneer. Undated trade account supplied in the fact sheet. https://whiskymag.com/articles/whisky-pioneer/
4. Malts.com, Diageo. Cardhu Distillery: 200 Years of Pioneering Spirit. Undated producer’s account supplied in the fact sheet. https://www.malts.com/en-gb/articles/cardhu-200-years-of-pioneering-spirit
5. Malts.com, Diageo. Women in Whisky: From Past to Present. Undated producer’s account supplied in the fact sheet. https://www.malts.com/en-gb/articles/women-in-whisky
6. Malts.com, Diageo. Discover Cardhu Whisky. Undated producer’s account supplied in the fact sheet. https://www.malts.com/en-gb/cardhu
7. Alfred Barnard. The Whisky Distilleries of the United Kingdom, 1887, “Cardow”. Reproduced by Whiskipedia, republication undated. https://whiskipedia.com/barnard/cardow/
8. Scotch Malt Whisky Society, Unfiltered, Gavin D Smith. For the love of Cardhu. Edition date not supplied in the fact sheet. https://unfiltered.smws.com/uk/02-2022/whisky-history-cardhu.html
9. Press and Journal. Cardhu Distillery opens new visitor experience after revamp. Edition date not supplied in the fact sheet. https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/moray/3239305/cardhu-distillery-multi-million-pound-revamp-continues-the-legacy-of-whisky-pioneer-helen-cumming/
10. The Whiskey Wash. The Untold Stories Behind the World's Most Famous Scotch Whisky. Undated trade account supplied in the fact sheet. https://thewhiskeywash.com/whiskey-articles/the-untold-stories-behind-the-worlds-most-famous-scotch-whisky
11. Alcohol Professor. Speyside's Cardhu: the Extraordinary Story of the Women Behind the Whisky. Edition date not supplied in the fact sheet. https://www.alcoholprofessor.com/blog-posts/blog/2014/04/08/speysides-cardhu-the-extraordinary-story-of-the-women-behind-the-whisky

This desk-researched article follows verified fact sheet TOP-A779, distinguishing Barnard’s contemporary account, later trade histories and the producer’s accounts.

Last checked: November 2026