Echlinville Distillery Day 2023 | Belfast Whiskey Week

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/23/532

There are festival events, and then there are days that lodge themselves somewhere deep in the memory — in the duchas of the thing, the inherited sense that this is how whiskey was always meant to be experienced. Echlinville Distillery's 2023 Belfast Whiskey Week Distillery Day, Welcome to the Warehouse, was emphatically the latter. Out on the Ards Peninsula, with the County Down air carrying the faint salt of Strangford Lough and the earth of a working barley farm underfoot, this was a five-hour immersion in everything that makes Northern Ireland's first new distillery in over 125 years such a singular place.

About This Event

With our senses and our minds blown last year by the hospitality, tastes and smells on the Echlinville Warehouse Tasting, there was no doubt that this event is already getting tongues wagging! Echlinville Distillery Proudly Invites you to come to the Ards Peninsula and take a wee walk around their recently upgraded pathways and walkways, tour the full distillery, relax and listen to some Cajun Bluegrass tunes while you tuck into the local produce and exquisite food and sip on some exceptional whiskies from the Dunville’s Casks; all while waiting in anticipation to taste that new Echlinville Whiskey. You’ll be fed, inspired and well watered on this Unique Distillery Day. This is the only place you can buy our Belfast Whiskey Week Special bottling also. No Bottles of BWW 2023 from Dunville’s will be sold online. No limit to those who are in attendance, or who make their way to the Distillery during the Week. Start Time: 12pm Duration: 5hrs Venue: Echlinville Drinks: 6 Drinks Type: Distillery Day Travel: Please Note that this Session will include Transport from Belfast City Centre (Next to City Hall) Bus Stances. There will be an Usher wearing a Belfast Whiskey Week Tee-Shirt, with a Sign looking to support you for the event. The Bus will Leave at the Start of your Session Time and will return no later than 6hrs later. Please contact us if you need to discuss your accessibility needs for this trip. 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 bus from Belfast city centre — a quietly civilised touch that let attendees arrive as guests rather than logistics problems — deposited a happy crowd at Kircubbin just after noon. Echlinville's recently upgraded pathways and walkways made the run of the estate feel genuinely accessible, guiding visitors through a working farm-to-glass operation where the field and the still are never very far apart. There is no performance of heritage here; Echlinville Distillery simply grows its barley in this tír, distils it in this place, and lets the landscape speak for itself.

The full distillery tour gave attendees a proper grounding in how the spirit moves from grain to glass on the estate — a seanchas of sorts, told in copper and wood and the particular amber of new-make catching the light. But it was the warehouse that sharpened the senses. Tasting directly from Dunville's casks, with all the warehouse hush and that singular interplay of spirit and oak hanging in the air, reminded everyone present why uisce beatha earned its name. Six drinks across the afternoon were curated with care, building a picture of the distillery's range without ever tipping into excess.

Between pours, a Cajun Bluegrass act kept the mood buoyant and easy — an unexpected pairing that somehow worked perfectly against the stone and timber of the Echlinville estate. Local produce and thoughtfully prepared food kept hunger well at bay, and the combination of music, whiskey, and landscape gave the day the unhurried quality that distinguishes a great festival event from a mere tasting. This was the kind of afternoon that earns the word craic honestly, without needing to reach for it.

The singular draw for many was the exclusive Belfast Whiskey Week 2023 special bottling from Dunville's — available only to those who made it out to the distillery that week, with no online sales. That kind of commitment to the live experience matters, and it gave the day a weight beyond the pleasurable. Those who held a bottle on the bus home knew they were carrying something that couldn't be acquired any other way. It was a gesture entirely in keeping with a distillery that understands the difference between product and provenance. If you're curious about the broader landscape of distillery experiences that defined BWW 2023, the Whiskey Map offers a useful sense of the full reach of the festival that year.

Events like this — rooted, generous, unhurried, and genuinely illuminating — are the reason Echlinville sits at the heart of Belfast Whiskey Week year after year. For those who attended similar distillery day experiences in 2023, Titanic Distillers' Distillery Evening offered a compelling urban counterpoint to Echlinville's rural warmth. But out on the Ards Peninsula, with Dunville's whiskey in hand and a Bluegrass fiddle in the air, it was hard to imagine being anywhere else. Sláinte mhaith.