McConnell's Distillery Tour – Belfast Whiskey Week 2024

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

Filed: 20 Jul 2024
By: Belfast Whiskey Week
Read: 3 min
Ref: BWW/24/076

There are moments in any city's story when past and future shake hands across a dram, and the McConnell's Signature Distillery Tour at Belfast Whiskey Week 2024 was precisely one of them. On 20th July, guests stepped inside one of Belfast's most storied buildings to become among the very first people in the world to walk the floor of a working distillery that had only recently opened its doors. For an hour, the uisce beatha flowed — and so did the history.

About This Event

Book in for a Signature Tour with McConnell's and spend some time in one of Belfast's most historic buildings. Having only opened its doors a few months ago, you will be one of the first in the World to experience this truly spectacular Distillery and Visitor Attraction. It is only a few minutes walk from the City Centre and will last an hour.

Looking Back

McConnell's Irish Whisky carries a name that reaches deep into Belfast's duchas — its roots stretch back to 1776, making it one of the oldest Irish whiskey brands still standing. The revival of that name, and the decision to root it firmly in the city where it began, is an act of genuine civic pride rather than mere branding. The new distillery and visitor attraction occupies a building with bones that can hold the weight of that story, sitting only a short walk from Belfast city centre, close enough that you could practically smell the pot still from Royal Avenue on the right day.

Those who booked onto MT20B arrived to find a space that felt simultaneously brand new and deeply familiar — all gleaming copper and exposed brick, the kind of place where you sense the seanchas in the walls even as the distillery's first spirit runs are still finding their character. Because McConnell's had only opened a matter of months before Belfast Whiskey Week 2024, there was a genuine thrill to being among the first visitors through the doors; not a polished, well-worn tour, but something still warm from the kiln. Guides walked the group through the process with clear enthusiasm — this was a team proud of what they were building, and it showed in every explanation and every exchange.

The tour itself ran to around an hour, which proved well-judged — long enough to do justice to the distillery's scale and ambition, short enough to leave you wanting more. Attendees moved through the production spaces, taking in the stills and the warehouse areas, before settling in to taste the whiskey that has already put the McConnell's name back on shelves internationally. For those who had attended the earlier Saturday morning session, MT19B, or who planned to balance their week with a visit to Titanic Distillers' own Signature Tour, the contrast between Belfast's two newest distillery experiences made for a particularly rich weekend of exploration.

What set MT20B apart was that particular quality of witnessing something near its beginning. There is a Gaelic idea caught in the word tír — land, territory, the place you belong to — and McConnell's return to Belfast has something of that homecoming about it. To stand inside the distillery and understand that the liquid maturing in those casks might one day carry the same generational weight as the original McConnell's name is a genuinely moving thought. At £25, the Signature Tour offered not just a behind-the-scenes look at production, but a chance to be part of the opening chapter of what could become one of Ireland's great distillery stories.

If you missed this session, it's worth knowing that a companion session, MT20A, also ran on the same day, and McConnell's continues to offer tours through their visitor experience. Belfast Whiskey Week 2024 was richer for their presence — sláinte mhaith to the whole team.