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Copeland Distillery Day – Belfast Whiskey Week 2025
On a July Sunday that felt made for it, Belfast Whiskey Week boarded a bus east and followed the coast road down to Donaghadee — to the harbour, the lighthouse, and the quietly remarkable Copeland Distillery Day. This was uisce beatha with its boots off and its face turned to the sea: five and a half hours of oysters, whiskey, warehouse casks, and the kind of Irish hospitality that doesn't need to announce itself. It simply arrives, warm and unhurried, like the tide.
About This Event
20th July 2025 : Leaves from Room 2
Departs Belfast: 15:00pm
Departs Venue: 19:45pm
Duration: 5.5hrs
Not too far from Belfast, on the east coast overlooking Scotland, lies Copeland Distillery.
The small, vibrant coastal town of Donaghadee is home to a distinctive lighthouse, harbour boats, great wee bars, restaurants serving locally caught produce—and of course, Copeland Distillery.
The humble beginnings of the distillery are shared by founder Gareth Irvine, expressing deep gratitude to the 370 founding cask members who helped bring the vision to life.
Gin, rum, vodka, coffee liqueur, and finally whiskey—since 2019, this small distillery has crafted it all. Their products have won taste awards and now travel the world, showcasing this idyllic coastal location.
For BWW this year, Copeland are planning a few surprises. Details are under wraps, but rest assured—you won’t be disappointed.
Take a close look inside the distillery and warehouse, taste exceptional whiskies, and feast on locally sourced food—all while soaking up the rich maritime atmosphere.
Picture coastal surrounds, Irish hospitality, and the exclusive new whiskies coming out of Donaghadee.
Not too far from Belfast, on the east coast overlooking Scotland, lies Copeland Distillery.
The small, vibrant coastal town of Donaghadee is home to a distinctive lighthouse, harbour boats, great wee bars, restaurants serving locally caught produce—and of course, Copeland Distillery.
The humble beginnings of the distillery are shared by founder Gareth Irvine, expressing deep gratitude to the 370 founding cask members who helped bring the vision to life.
Gin, rum, vodka, coffee liqueur, and finally whiskey—since 2019, this small distillery has crafted it all. Their products have won taste awards and now travel the world, showcasing this idyllic coastal location.
For BWW this year, Copeland are planning a few surprises. Details are under wraps, but rest assured—you won’t be disappointed.
Take a close look inside the distillery and warehouse, taste exceptional whiskies, and feast on locally sourced food—all while soaking up the rich maritime atmosphere.
Picture coastal surrounds, Irish hospitality, and the exclusive new whiskies coming out of Donaghadee.
Copeland Distillery Day
Sunday 20th July 2025
- Guests will meet in Belfast at the (Garrick Bar) at 15:00 - (Or meet at the Distillery at 15:30)
-Arrive at the Distillery; grab your coat & grab a drink - we’re off to shuck oysters & drink whiskey on the pier!
- After a short sightseeing of the Harbour, arrive back to the Distillery for a tour & tasting on the Distillery floor, hosted by Gareth, Founder of The Copeland Distillery.
- Exclusive opportunity to sample 25.2 - our first single cask - and a first chance to purchase before release that night!
- Enjoy & refuel with a BBQ, hosted by our neighbours Ballyboley from Orlock.
-Then we’re back into the bus - heading to the Distillery Warehouse for a cocktail on arrival, followed by a cask tasting experience; single malts, pot-stills, peated whiskies - the full Copeland range.
-Bus leaves for Belfast at 20:30, arriving back at 21:00
Looking Back
The day gathered in Belfast at the Garrick Bar at three o'clock — a soft start, a chance to find your people before the bus rolled out through the Ards Peninsula towards County Down. For those who made their own way, the distillery welcomed them at half past the hour, and from the moment you arrived in Donaghadee, the town did what Donaghadee does: charmed without trying. The lighthouse stood white against the sky, the harbour boats rocked gently, and Gareth Irvine, founder of Copeland, met the group with the easy warmth of a man entirely at home in what he's built. That ease matters. It's the duchas of the place — the belonging — and you feel it.
The first order of business was one of the more purely joyful things BWW has asked of its guests: out to the pier to shuck oysters and drink whiskey. Whatever the weather, whatever your mood going in, it's difficult to remain unmoved by that combination — cold shell, cold sea, and a glass of something from the distillery that sits a short walk away. After a wander around the harbour and a look at the town, the group made its way back for the main event: a tour and tasting on the distillery floor, led by Gareth himself. He speaks about Copeland's origins with genuine gratitude, acknowledging the 370 founding cask members whose belief in the vision made it possible. That seanchas — that sense of shared story — runs through everything the distillery does.
The centrepiece of the afternoon was something genuinely special, even by the standards of a festival built around special things. Guests were given an exclusive opportunity to taste 25.2, Copeland's first single cask release — and, crucially, the first chance to purchase a bottle before it was released to anyone else that evening. For those who have followed Copeland's journey since the early gin and rum days, tasting their debut single cask in the place it was made, from a glass poured by the founder, was a moment worth travelling for. The whiskey spoke for itself: coastal, considered, and quietly confident.
Refuelling came courtesy of neighbours Ballyboley from Orlock, whose BBQ was exactly what the afternoon called for — locally sourced, generously served, and eaten with the maritime air doing its gentle work on the appetite. Then came the warehouse. The bus moved the group from distillery to bond store for a cocktail on arrival, followed by a cask tasting that ranged across the full Copeland range: single malts, pot-stills, peated expressions. Working through a distillery's range in the warehouse where the casks sleep is one of the great pleasures of festival life, and this session delivered. The darkness, the wooden casks, the concentrated smell of spirit and oak — it is a particular kind of sacred, and Copeland do it well. It's worth noting that Echlinville's Distillery Day has set a high bar for this format in previous years, and Copeland matched it with their own character.
The bus left Donaghadee just after half eight, and by nine o'clock the group was back in Belfast — full, happy, and carrying something new: a bottle of 25.2 and the memory of the pier, the oysters, the warehouse, and a distillery that knows exactly who it is. Named after the islands you can see from the County Down shore, Copeland sits on Ireland's whiskey map as a place with something to say — and the Sunday in Donaghadee gave it every room to say it.
The Brand: Copeland
Named after the islands off the County Down shore, Copeland Distillery is a Northern Ireland whiskey brand with its roots deep in the tir.
The Venue
Copeland Distillery — Distillery. Donaghadee, County Down
Award-winning coastal distillery producing premium Irish whiskey with unique sea air influence.
More from Belfast Whiskey Week
- Session 26: Copeland 1 (Introduction)
- Session 66: Copeland 2 (Introduction)
- 4: Two Stacks: Welcome to the Bond
- 14: Titanic Distillers: Distillery Evening
- 66: Echlinville Distillery: Distillery Day (Welcome to the Warehouse)
- 11: Two Stacks: Party At Their Gaff
Explore the full programme on the Belfast Whiskey Week Whiskey Map.
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