Distilleries
Coleraine
Published 13/08/2025
Another silent and lost distillery in Country Derry, John Rennie coverted an old manorial mill near the River Bann into a distillery in 1820. When Alfred Barnard visited the distillery it was operated as a malt distillery. A Coffey still was installed in 1954. Production was reprioristed to grain during the 1960’s, though both were maintained. In 1972 Coleraine was acquired by Irish Distillers Ltd. Grain distillation was discontinued in 1975 after IDL opened the new Midleton distillery.
Comber
Published 13/08/2025
Comber was an Irish distillery located some eight miles south-east of Belfast. Originally two seperate distilleries distillation occured across two sites called Upper and Lower Comber. Lower Comber was an old converted paper mill run by messrs Byrne and Griffithin as Byrne & Company whereas Upper Comber was a former brewery converted for distilling by John Millar and George Johnston. Millar ultimately acquired Lower Comber in 1860 unifying the two distilleries into a single operation.
Connacht
Published 13/08/2025
Connacht is a new distillery in the town of Ballina, County Mayo. The pot still whiskey produced here is primarily intended for the USA, but we will probably also be able to benefit from the Connacht products. How does Connacht whiskey taste? That remains to be seen. How is Connacht whiskey made? The distillery is said to have an annual capacity of around 300,000 liters of alcohol and produce around 450,000 bottles of Irish Pot Still Whiskey.
Convalmore
Published 13/08/2025
Convalmore was a whisky distillery in Dufftown, Banffshire, Scotland, UK. The Victorian-style distillery, which was built in 1893, had a somewhat turbulent history. During its lifetime the distillery was ravaged by fire and rebuilt, undertook a failed excursion into continuous distillation using a Coffey Still. Ultimately Convalmore closed its doors in 1985 and the site was sold for warehousing. Convalmore was the fourth distillery of seven built in Dufftown, collectively known as the ‘Seven Stills of Dufftown’.
Cooley
Published 13/08/2025
The Cooley distillery is located on the Irish peninsula of the same name near Riverstown. Production of Cooley whisky When Dr. John Teeling started to distill on Easter Monday in 1987 with the Cooley Distillery, he did it with such highly esteemed whiskey personalities as Billy Walker from Scotland. The approach of distilling the spirit only twice instead of thrice as was the rule in Ireland was more inline with the Scottish approach.