Walking With Marty: Irish Whiskey Tour | 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/23/908

Some events sit in a room and let the whiskey do the talking. Walking With Marty did things differently. On a Wednesday evening in October 2023, Marty McAuley gathered a small band of willing souls outside City Hall and set them loose on Belfast itself — the streets, the sheughs, the hidden corners and the welcoming bars that make this city one of the great whiskey destinations on the island. Three hours, five drams, and more stories than you could decently carry home.

About This Event

There’s no easier way to put this: Put your comfy shoes on, dress for Belfast Weather, grab yer ticket and meet me at City Hall. I’ll be wearing clothes. Easy to find sure, with a Whiskey Week sign. Once all the stragglers get here - we’re off! Then it’s just me, you, and a handful of other chaps and lassies, as we dander about Belfast in search of good craic, good whiskey and good places to tell my stories. This walking tour is full of food, whiskies and me imparting the impartiality, expelling the experiences and holding forth the history of this Great Whiskey City. No need to eat before hand - I’ll feed and water you, promise - Marty McAuley Timeslot: 6pm-9pm Start Time: 6pm Duration: 3hrs Venue: Multiple Locations Drinks: 5 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

It started, as all good Belfast adventures do, with a gathering. Marty — easy enough to spot, sign in hand, wearing clothes as promised — met the group at City Hall as the evening light softened over the Donegall Square limestone. There's a particular kind of duchas to that spot: the civic heart of a city that has always known how to celebrate itself, and to mourn, and to come back around to celebrating again. It felt like the right place to begin a journey through its whiskey soul.

What made Walking With Marty more than a glorified pub crawl was the seanchas threaded through every stop. Marty McAuley is a storyteller in the old Ulster tradition — not a lecturer, not a tour guide reading from a laminated card, but someone who carries the history of Irish whiskey in his bones and knows how to pass it on with a raised glass and a well-timed pause. Participants weren't just handed drams; they were handed context. Why this street? Why this bar? Why does Belfast matter to the story of Irish whiskey in a way that often goes untold? By the end of the night, those questions had layered answers.

The food came as a welcome surprise to anyone who'd arrived on an empty stomach — Marty had warned attendees not to bother eating beforehand, and he was good to his word. Whiskey and sustenance arrived together across the multiple venues the group moved through, which kept spirits high and feet moving. Five drams across three hours is a considered pace: enough to explore the breadth of Irish whiskey's character without losing the thread of the evening. The selection spoke to the range and confidence of the category as it stands today — a far cry from the lean decades when only a handful of distilleries held the flame.

It's worth noting that Walking With Marty wasn't a lone offering in BWW2023's walking tour programme. The festival also ran Belfast Hidden Tours: Walking, Whiskies & Whispers and Belfast Walking Tours: Belfast's Public Houses & Art Trail, each taking a different angle on the city's relationship with the uisce beatha. Taken together, they made the case that Belfast's streets are as much a part of the whiskey experience as any distillery floor — and that the best way to understand a tír is to walk it. For a broader sense of where whiskey lives across the city, our Belfast Whiskey Map is still a fine place to start planning your own dander.

By the time the group dispersed somewhere around the nine o'clock mark, there was that particular warmth in the air that has nothing to do with the weather and everything to do with good company, honest whiskey and a guide who gave the evening his full attention. Sláinte, Marty — and to everyone who laced up their comfortable shoes and trusted the streets of Belfast to look after them. They did, as they always do.