Belfast Pub & Art 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/23/268

There are few finer ways to read a city than on foot, dram in hand, with someone who genuinely loves the place. On Saturday 29th October 2023, Belfast Walking Tours' Larry and Paul led a hand-crafted, Belfast Whiskey Week-exclusive trail through the heart of the city — weaving together centuries-old public houses, vibrant street art, and four generous pours of uisce beatha into three hours that felt more like seanchas than a ticketed event.

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

The tour set off at noon and didn't waste a breath. Larry and Paul — whose combined knowledge of Belfast's streets, stories, and sheughs could fill several volumes — guided participants through the city centre with the easy authority of men who have walked these routes a thousand times and still find something new in them. From the oldest surviving taverns to the laneways now blazing with murals and commissioned artwork, the trail read like a love letter to a city that has, in recent decades, found fresh ways to express itself without forgetting what it came from. That tension between duchas and reinvention is Belfast to its marrow, and this tour leaned into it beautifully.

Four drams were poured at carefully chosen stops along the route — each one selected from that year's festival lineup, sipped in settings that gave context to the whiskey as much as the whiskey gave warmth to the surroundings. There is something quietly revelatory about tasting a well-made Irish whiskey in a room that has been serving drinks for over a century; the liquid and the architecture begin to speak to each other. Participants who had perhaps arrived thinking this was simply a pleasant Saturday afternoon out left with a noticeably sharper appreciation for what Belfast's pub culture actually is — not just a place to drink, but a place to gather, to argue, to remember, and to belong. If you want to explore more of the city's whiskey geography, the Belfast Whiskey Week Whiskey Map is a fine place to continue the conversation.

Between drams, Oh Donut delivered what can only be described as a bespoke sugar intervention. The festival-exclusive doughnuts were, by all accounts, an inspired pairing — the sweetness cutting through the oak and spice of the whiskeys in a way that no pretentious charcuterie board could have managed. It was unpretentious, generous, and entirely in keeping with the spirit of the day. Sláinte to that.

Belfast Walking Tours runs a programme that is at once educational and genuinely entertaining — their guides wear their knowledge lightly enough that you learn without ever feeling lectured to. This particular event sat comfortably alongside other popular BWW2023 walking experiences; those who enjoyed this Saturday afternoon session would have found equal pleasure in Belfast Hidden Tours: Walking, Whiskies & Whispers, or the more whiskey-focused perspective offered by Irish Whiskey Review: Walking With Marty. Together, these tours made a compelling case that the best way to understand Belfast's relationship with whiskey is to physically move through the city that shaped it.

At £30 for three hours, four drams, pastry, and the kind of craic that genuinely cannot be manufactured, this event represented one of BWW2023's most approachable and quietly memorable sessions. It asked nothing of participants except comfortable shoes and an open mind — and it rewarded both generously. The city was the venue, the history was the curriculum, and the whiskey was, as it should always be, the thread that tied it all together.