Belfast Pub & Art Trail Walking Tour | Belfast Whiskey Week 2023

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

Filed: 15 Jul 2023
By: Belfast Whiskey Week
Read: 5 min
Ref: BWW/23/892

Some events at Belfast Whiskey Week ask you to sit still and sip slowly. This one asked you to lace up your shoes, step out into the city, and let Belfast itself do the talking. On Friday 28th October 2023, Belfast Walking Tours led a bespoke three-hour trail through the heart of the city, weaving together the oldest public houses, vivid street art, four carefully chosen drams, and — in a touch of pure Belfast wit — freshly made donuts from Oh Donut. It was, by any measure, a brilliant way to spend a Friday afternoon.

About This Event

A Truly Bespoke Tour; designed for Belfast Whiskey Week. Larry & Paul take you on a trail that allows you to discover the Vibrant Art Work that is Brightening up our City Centre, coupled with the discovery of our oldest taverns and the historic buildings that have been preserved for us to frequent. The Tour provides an insight into our rich Irish Pub culture and lively Street Art scene, while sipping whiskies from the festival and sampling our bespoke Donuts from "Oh Donut". The Craic from these lads alone is worth the ticket price. Timeslot: 12pm-3pm Start Time: 12pm Duration: 3hrs Venue: Multiple Locations Drinks: 4 Drams Type: Walking Tour Walking: Be Prepared to Walk around Belfast. Some of the areas & venues may not be fully accessible, please contact us @belfastwhiskeyweek on socials, or via email on marketing@belfastwhiskeyweek.com or 07773675179 (8am-8pm) to discuss. Disclaimers Please note that individual dietary requirements are not being catered for with any food at this event. Each Brand/Distillery and Collaborative Partner have agreed to our Min/Max Pour Policy. Please Respect this, and enjoy your festival responsibly. Festival Participants who are deemed to be too inebriated, or are not respecting themselves, will not be permitted into events and venues. ALL Hosts/Ushers/Collaborators and Venue Staff have the right to refuse participants without question and recourse. Please Drink Responsibly. All events are only available to those 18 years old and over. Do not purchase tickets if you are under the age of 18. Be prepared to produce ID if required. Venue staff & ushers may ask you to provide ID when showing your valid tickets. You may be refused enter to events if you can’t prove your age. Some venues may change, if they do, you will be notified. All events are subject to changes out of the control of the festival organisers. Any issues, please contact us @belfastwhiskeyweek on socials, or via email on marketing@belfastwhiskeyweek.com or 07773675179 (8am-8pm) to discuss. NO Refunds will be given. Please only buy tickets if you are prepared to attend the event. Tickets are transferable. If you are going to transfer tickets please email, marketing@belfastwhiskeyweek.com

Looking Back

There is a word in Irish — dúchas — that speaks to a sense of belonging, of heritage that lives in the ground beneath your feet. Belfast's city centre carries that quality in abundance, and Larry and Paul from Belfast Walking Tours have an instinctive gift for drawing it out. Their trail, designed specifically for Belfast Whiskey Week, was no generic stroll between pubs. It was a carefully curated journey through layers of the city's story: the laneway murals and technicolour gable ends of a place reimagining itself, set against the dark wood and burnished brass of taverns that have been pouring pints through generations of Belfast history.

The group set off at noon and the pace was generous — enough time to take in the art, ask questions, and let the seanchas (the old storytelling) flow naturally from guides who clearly love this city without romanticising it into something it isn't. Larry and Paul's craic was, as promised, worth the ticket price alone. There was warmth, sharp humour, and the kind of local knowledge that no guidebook captures. Between stops, the conversation ranged from the provenance of a particular mural to the architectural quirks of a preserved Victorian bar front, and back again to whatever was sitting in the glass.

And there was always something in the glass. Four drams across the afternoon meant that the whiskey was a companion to the walk rather than the sole focus — sipped in context, in situ, in venues that gave each pour a sense of place. That is exactly the spirit Belfast Whiskey Week aims for: uisce beatha not as a performance, but as part of living culture. If you're curious about the other walking experiences that ran alongside this one, the Belfast Hidden Tours: Walking, Whiskies & Whispers and Irish Whiskey Review: Walking With Marty offered their own distinct takes on exploring the city with a dram in hand.

The Oh Donut collaboration deserves its own mention. Bespoke donuts — created specifically for the festival — landed at exactly the right moments, cutting through the warmth of the whiskey and giving the afternoon a generous, slightly indulgent quality that felt entirely right for a Friday session. It was one of those small, well-judged details that elevates an event from good to genuinely memorable. Belfast knows how to feed people, and this was a fine example of that hospitality in practice.

The Belfast Walking Tours Public Houses & Art Trail ran across multiple timeslots throughout the festival week, and it was one of the events that genuinely rewarded repeat attendance — different guides, different light, different conversations. For anyone who experienced it, the trail offered something rare: a reminder that the best way to understand a city's relationship with its drinking culture is simply to walk through it, eyes open, glass in hand. Sláinte mhaith to Larry, Paul, and everyone at Belfast Walking Tours for delivering something that felt rooted, generous, and entirely Belfast. Keep an eye on the Whiskey Map for how these venues connect across the festival landscape.