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/23/356

Some events sit you down and pour whiskey at you. This one pulled on your coat and took you somewhere. Walking With Marty — one of the most warmly regarded sessions of Belfast Whiskey Week 2023 — was a three-hour dander through the streets of the city with the irreplaceable Marty McAuley as your guide, your host, and your de facto seanchaí for the evening.

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 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 began, as Marty promised it would, at the front of City Hall on the evening of Thursday 27th October. The instruction had been simple: wear comfortable shoes, dress for Belfast weather (a phrase that does a lot of heavy lifting in this city), and find the man with the Whiskey Week sign. By six o'clock a loose gathering of curious souls had assembled on the pavement — some old hands, some first-timers, all of them ready for whatever came next. And what came next was Marty, warm and unhurried, waiting patiently for the stragglers before leading the group off into the amber-lit streets.

The genius of this format was its refusal to be anything other than itself. No boardroom aesthetics, no lectern, no slides. Just a city, a guide who clearly loves it, and the understanding that the best way to learn something is to walk through it. Marty imparted what he called the history of a Great Whiskey City — and Belfast's claim to that title is a serious one. At its Victorian peak, the city was home to some of the most productive distilleries in the world, and that duchas, that inherited belonging to the craft, runs deeper here than many visitors expect. Marty carried that knowledge lightly, threading it between stops and sips with the ease of someone who has told these stories many times but never grown tired of them.

Five drams punctuated the route, each one tied to a location and a context that made the whiskey taste differently than it might have in a bar. Food was folded into the evening too — Marty had promised to feed and water his guests, and he delivered on that. It was a considered touch; sustenance that kept the evening measured and convivial rather than racing toward the finish line. Those who came hungry left satisfied, and those who came simply curious left genuinely illuminated. If you want to understand how walking tours and whiskey culture can complement each other, events like Belfast Hidden Tours: Walking, Whiskies & Whispers and Belfast Walking Tours: Belfast's Public Houses & Art Trail showed different facets of the same idea across the 2023 festival — each with its own character, but all rooted in the conviction that Belfast is best understood on foot.

What made Marty's tour distinctive was the personal register. This was not a scripted heritage walk with laminated fact sheets. It was one knowledgeable person sharing what he knows and loves about a subject, in the place where that subject lives. The craic, as it reliably does in this city, found its own level. Strangers became easy companions somewhere between the second and third dram, and by the time the group dispersed around nine o'clock, there was a reluctance in the parting that said something real about the quality of the evening. You can find more of what Belfast Whiskey Week offers through our Whiskey Map, which traces the distilleries, bars, and landmarks that make this city worth exploring glass in hand.

At £50 for three hours, five drams, food, and Marty's considerable company, this was one of the better-value evenings the 2023 festival had to offer — not because it was cheap, but because it gave generously. Sláinte to everyone who laced up their shoes and trusted the man with the sign.