McConnell's Distillery Day – Belfast Whiskey Week 2025

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

Filed: 15 Jul 2025
By: Belfast Whiskey Week
Read: 5 min
Ref: BWW/25/772

There are few places in the world where you can sip uisce beatha in a room that once held suffragettes, statesmen, and sentenced men awaiting the gallows — but that's exactly what Belfast Whiskey Week 2025 delivered on Saturday 19th July, when the Distillery Day at McConnell's drew a crowd ready for something genuinely different. Nestled within the Victorian stonework of Crumlin Road Gaol, McConnell's Distillery is one of Belfast's most arresting addresses, and on this particular afternoon it proved itself an extraordinary host for an event that was equal parts whiskey education, historical immersion, and pure craic.

About This Event

19th July 2025 : Leaves from Room 2
Departs Belfast: 15:00pm
Departs Venue: 18:30pm
Duration: 4hrs

If you are in Belfast, then McConnell’s is on your doorstep; a skip, a hop and a javelin throw from the city centre.

Welcome to McConnell’s Distillery, a first of a kind, built within the walls and entwined in the fabric of the Old Crumlin Road Gaol. A famous Victorian purpose-built prison, used to house the overspilling County Gaol in Carrickfergus, including those for deportation. The building has a colourful history with notable prisoners; the suffragettes, Eamon De Valera, multiple politicians and various members of both sides of the conflict in Ireland. The prison also witnessed the execution of 17 between 1841 and 1961, as well has having a list of escapees, failed escapes and bombings.
Although the building has history, so does the brand. Dating back to the late 1700s, McConnell’s Irish Whisky had a very interesting up bringing. Hugh McConnell started off as a Grocer, and was involved in Bottling and Bonding. He passed away leaving two infant children (John and and James) with their mother, Eleanor. It was Eleanor who became the pioneer of McConnell’s, driving forward the small bottling/bonding business to become a recognised ‘rectifying distiller’ and handing over the very substantial Whisky business to her two children. The McConnell’s Trademark dates to 1776 and makes it the Oldest Whisky Trademark in the World.

Fast forward, and today, McConnell’s has reasserted itself by restoring the legend, and developing award winning whiskies that are distributed worldwide. A Trip to Belfast would be spoiled if not making a bee-line to the distillery.

This year’s Distillery Day at McConnell’s promises to be jam packed with great food, whiskey and stories that will provide a memorable occasion for you to savour. Get a bespoke, behind the scenes tour of McConnell's Distillery at Crumlin Road Gaol that will gear you up to having some Spirited Street Food - Filipino fusion that goes hand-in-hand with the smooth, rich flavours of the McConnell’s Irish Whisky range - easy, tasty, and packing a punch. Taste the full range of McConnell’s Irish Whisky and sample some distillery exclusives in great company and a history like no other.

Looking Back

The group departed Room 2 at 3pm and, as the event description cheerfully promised, McConnell's is barely a javelin throw from the city centre — close enough that the walk itself felt like a warm-up for what lay ahead. Arriving at the Gaol's imposing façade on Crumlin Road, there's always a moment where the sheer duchas of the place lands on you freshly. The old limestone walls carry the weight of over a century and a half of Belfast history, and yet today this same building hums with the quiet industry of a working distillery. It's a genuinely startling juxtaposition, and McConnell's wears it with confidence.

The behind-the-scenes tour was the beating heart of the afternoon. Guides led guests through the distillery's inner workings, tracing the journey from grain to glass while weaving in the seanchas of the McConnell's brand — a story that stretches back to the late 1700s, when Eleanor McConnell quietly transformed her late husband Hugh's modest bottling and bonding concern into a recognised rectifying distillery. That Eleanor's name doesn't appear in every whiskey history book is, frankly, a wrong that afternoons like this begin to put right. The McConnell's Trademark dates to 1776, making it the oldest whisky trademark in the world — a fact that landed with satisfying weight as guests stood surrounded by the very equipment breathing new life into that legacy.

The tasting itself covered the full McConnell's Irish Whisky range, alongside a handful of distillery exclusives that don't make it beyond those old Gaol walls. The whiskeys are approachable without being simple — smooth and rich with enough character to reward attention. The real surprise of the afternoon, though, was the food pairing. Filipino fusion street food isn't a combination most whiskey drinkers would have put on their bingo card, but it worked beautifully: bright, punchy flavours that met the warmth of McConnell's without fighting it. It was bold, fun, and — like the venue itself — entirely unexpected. Sláinte to whoever made that call.

Belfast Whiskey Week has built a strong tradition of distillery days that go beyond the standard pour-and-tour format, and this one sat comfortably alongside the best of them. If you've enjoyed Echlinville's Distillery Day out in the Ards Peninsula countryside, or the atmospheric setting of Titanic Distillers' Distillery Evening, McConnell's offers something different again — urban, historical, and steeped in a Belfast tír that few venues can match. For those who like to trace the full picture of Ulster's whiskey revival, the Whiskey Map is as good a place as any to start planning your next pilgrimage.

By the time the group departed at 6:30pm, there was a particular kind of contentment in the air — the sort that comes from a day genuinely well spent. McConnell's Distillery Day at Crumlin Road Gaol didn't just show guests how whiskey is made; it reminded them why stories matter, why place matters, and why Belfast, of all cities, deserves a whiskey tradition it can call its own.