The glen of the Livet has clean spring water that makes especially delicate whiskies. Among the distilling districts it is the one most deeply set into the mountains. Its water rises from granite and frequently flows underground for many miles. The mountain setting also provides for the weather that whisky-distillers like. When distilling is in progress the condensers work most effectively if they are cooled by very cold water, and in a climate to match.

There was much illicit production in the days when commercial distilling was banned and is a significant reason for the renown of the glen. There are said to have been a couple of hundred illicit stills in the wild, mountain country around the Livet in the late 1700s and early 1800s. The district was also a haven for whisky-smugglers on their way over the mountains to the bigger cities and ports, in the Midlands and south of Scotland.

At that time, partly because of grain shortages but also for reasons of political vindictiveness the Highlanders were permitted to distill only on a domestic scale. The modern distilling industry began after the Duke of Gordon proposed more accomodating legislation.

One of his tenants Geoge Gow or Smith, already an established illegal distiller was the first to apply for a new licence in 1824. It has over the years been thought that the family had supported Bonnie Prince Charlie but recent research suggests that this was not the case. George Smith founded the distillery that became The Glenlivet. His son John Gordon Smith assisted and succeeded him.

After distilling on two other sites nearby, the Smiths moved in 1858 to the present location. In 1880 the exclusive designation "The Glenlivet" was granted in a test case to distinguish it from the 18 or so other distilleries which at one time or another appended the name to their own.

Not far from the hamlet of Glenlivet, the distillery stands at a point where the grassy valley is already beginning to steepen toward the mountains. Some original buildings remain and the offices occupy a handsome 1920s house.