Belfast Walking Tours: Pub & Art Trail | 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/23/748

There are few better ways to take the measure of a city than on foot, dram in hand, with someone who genuinely loves the place. That was exactly the spirit of Belfast Walking Tours' bespoke Public Houses & Art Trail, one of the most warmly received walking events of Belfast Whiskey Week 2023. Over three hours on a Thursday afternoon, guides Larry and Paul led a lucky group through the living, breathing heart of the city centre — from centuries-old taverns to vivid murals — and proved that the real uisce beatha of Belfast isn't only found in a glass.

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 departed at noon on Thursday 27th October, gathering participants at the first of several stops across the city centre. From the off, it was clear this wasn't a standard heritage walk with a whiskey tacked on. Larry and Paul wove together the seanchas — the living lore — of Belfast's oldest licensed premises with a sharp eye for the street art movement that has, in recent years, transformed gable walls and laneways into an open-air gallery. The two threads complemented each other beautifully: old stones and new colour, deep roots and fresh expression, much like the best Irish whiskey itself.

Four drams were poured across the afternoon, each one timed to mark a stop along the route. The whiskeys came from the Belfast Whiskey Week festival selection, and their hosts did them justice — contextualising each pour within the story of wherever the group happened to be standing: a Victorian gin palace, a narrow snug that has heard a century of confidences, a corner where a striking mural blooms across three storeys of brickwork. Pairing whiskey to place, rather than simply to flavour notes, gave each dram a resonance it might not otherwise have had. This is the kind of duchas-inflected thinking that makes Belfast Whiskey Week events memorable rather than merely enjoyable.

Then there were the donuts. Oh Donut's bespoke creations — produced specifically for this event — arrived at intervals that felt almost suspiciously well-judged, appearing just as the group needed grounding between drams and miles. They were rich, creative, and quietly excellent, the sort of detail that separates a well-organised event from a truly considered one. Dietary caveats aside (and the festival was transparent about the limitations on individual requirements), they were a hit. If you missed this tour and want a sense of what the full Belfast Whiskey Week walking experience looks like across its different formats, the Thursday morning session of this same trail and Belfast Hidden Tours' Whiskeys & Whispers walk offer their own distinct takes on the city-on-foot format.

What Larry and Paul bring to Belfast Walking Tours is something that can't be scripted: a genuine affection for this tír, this city, its contradictions and its craic. The laughter was constant, the knowledge was worn lightly, and the group — strangers at noon — were very much not strangers by three o'clock. That kind of social alchemy is rare, and it's what whiskey, at its best, has always been good at catalysing. Sláinte to them both. If you're curious about the full range of distilleries and independent bottlers who poured across the festival, our Whiskey Map gives a sense of the breadth of producers involved in BWW 2023.

This particular timeslot — the 12pm–3pm Thursday afternoon session — sold out as part of a busy week of walking tours that ran across multiple days, a testament to how well this format has landed with festival-goers. If Belfast Whiskey Week has a founding conviction, it's that whiskey belongs in the city it helped shape, drunk in the places that shaped it. This tour embodied that conviction as well as any event in the 2023 programme.