As the oldest licensed distillery of its kind in Ireland, the Kilbeggan Distilling Company has seen its share of trials and triumphs.
Founded in 1757, the distillery spent the next 200 years making a whiskey beloved the world over. So when tough times ground its gears to a halt, the town came together to save the whiskey that built the town. It wasn’t quick or easy, but they persevered. Today, every bottle produced stands as proof that the spirit of Kilbeggan never wavered.
When the doors of the Kilbeggan Distillery were shut in 1953, the people of Kilbeggan could’ve easily accepted defeat. They could’ve acknowledged that times had changed, and that fate had dealt them more than their share of bad breaks. They would do no such thing. The distillery meant too much to too many in the town. They would never let its smokestack be reduced to a monument, no matter what the world threw at them.
The fact that Kilbeggan Distillery is alive and well is a testament to the people who live here today. The process used to distill the whiskey is a testament to the people who came before. The same pot stills from centuries ago are still on-site, and the whiskey still runs through a building erected well before the advent of electricity.
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