Gerston I distillery was located in Caithness, by the Thurso River, in the west side of the village of Halkirk.
The distillery was founded by Francis Swanson in 1796, as a family owned distillery. It was operated on a small farm-house scale, but had reputable customers from Brazil and India. The distillery was closed in 1875, and demolished in 1882.
Gerston I was a small scale operation. The Whisky they produced was of extremely high quality. The peat used for the Whisky was acquired from Loch Calder. The water source was from an unnamed branch of Thurso, where gravity instinctively pulls the water down the sloped structure of the terrain.
The main success of the Whisky was because of the barley. Gerston One managed to produce 30,695 liters of alcohol, from 63 metric tons of barley, giving a yield of 487 liters per ton of barley. This was the highest amount in comparison to neighboring distilleries.