Belfast Hidden Tours Whiskey Walk | Belfast Whiskey Week 2024

Name: Belfast Whiskey Week 2026
Start: 2026-07-24
End: 2026-08-01
Location: Belfast

Filed: 25 Jul 2024
By: Belfast Whiskey Week
Read: 3 min
Ref: BWW/24/300

There are few finer ways to begin a festival morning than stepping out into Belfast's streets with a dram in hand and a story waiting around every corner. Session 61 of Belfast Whiskey Week 2024 did exactly that — pairing Belfast Hidden Tours' deep well of local knowledge with the uisce beatha heritage that runs like a sheugh through the city's bones. This bespoke whiskey and walking tour kicked off the festival daily, and it did so with real heart.

About This Event

Belfast Hidden Tours kicks off the Festival daily, with a great opportunity to explore the City while sipping a few drams on the way. This Bespoke walk combines Belfast Hidden Tours' love of Whiskey Heritage, Belfast Histories and some great hidden places that need to be explored and not forgotten. Be prepared to listen attentively; don't miss the stories of those individuals and businesses that have built the Belfast Industry through the last few hundred years. Industrial Whiskey and Heritage is brought to life by well versed guides who have a great sense of humour and pride in their City! This walking tour will also include one of our collaborative Whiskey Donuts from "Oh Donuts" and/or bespoke Chocolates from "Daisies".

Looking Back

Belfast Hidden Tours bring something to the festival that no distillery masterclass quite can: the city itself as the classroom. The guides — seasoned storytellers with an easy humour and a genuine pride in their tír — led attendees through corners of Belfast that most visitors, and indeed many locals, walk past without a second thought. These weren't polished heritage trails with laminated signs; these were the lived-in, tucked-away places that carry the real duchas of the city, the kind of seanchas you only hear if someone takes the time to tell you.

The whiskey thread running through the tour wasn't decorative — it was structural. Guides wove the history of Belfast's industrial whiskey trade into the fabric of each stop, bringing to life the merchants, blenders, and distillers who helped shape a city and an industry across the last few hundred years. Attendees were asked to listen attentively, and by all accounts they did, drawn in by stories that felt less like lecture and more like conversation with a knowledgeable friend over a very good dram. Those interested in exploring that heritage further might enjoy the Bushmills History MasterClass, which traces the longer arc of Irish whiskey from a distillery perspective.

The sweet touches were something rather special. Collaborative whiskey-infused donuts from Oh Donuts and bespoke chocolates from Daisies — the charming Belfast City Centre restaurant that also served as the event's anchor venue — gave the walk a warmth that went beyond the drams themselves. Daisies is the sort of place that understands food as hospitality rather than transaction, and their chocolates carried that same care. Together with Oh Donuts, these additions turned a walking tour into a full sensory experience of the city.

At £15, Session 61 was one of the most accessible events in the 2024 programme, and arguably one of the most generous in what it offered. There's a growing conversation in the whiskey world about making the culture more welcoming, less intimidating — and Belfast Hidden Tours embody that instinctively. Sláinte to that. For those whose appetite for Belfast's whiskey story extended beyond the streets, the festival offered rich complementary experiences including the Sexton Deconstruction Showcase and the Bushmills Causeway Collection MasterClass.

If you missed this one in 2024, it's worth keeping a close eye on the programme in future years. Belfast Hidden Tours have built something genuinely distinctive here — a tour that respects the city, respects the drink, and respects the people who show up curious. That's no small thing.