The Lough Gill distillery is located in the north-west of Ireland, in Sligo , near the "Wild Atlantic Drive". In 2014, the operators acquired the Hazelwood Estate there. In addition to huge forest areas in a nature reserve on Lough Gill, the site also includes Hazelwood House. This Palladian-style villa was built in 1722 by the German architect Richard Cassels as the first of its kind in Ireland. Cassels subsequently became one of Ireland's most important representatives of this style. Directly behind the villa are 24,000 square meters of former factory halls. Nylon was once produced here, and later, until recently, 60% of Europe's VHS video cassettes were produced here.
The well-known massive changes in the image storage market led to the closure of the plant. After they were cleared, the old factory halls have been equipped with distillation systems since construction work began in 2016. In the first expansion phase, a distillery with an annual capacity of 1 million liters, around 3 million bottles of single malt whisky, is being built here. When we visited the construction site in early April 2019, malt silos, malt mill, mash tun, fermentation vats and stills had already been installed and were just being piped.
Billy Walker goes back to Ireland
As Master Distiller for the Lough Gill Distillery could Billy Walker Since 2004, he had helped to build up the BenRiach Group (BenRiach, Glendronach, Glenglassaugh) and had a decisive influence on it. When the owners' association decided to sell to Brown-Forman (Jack Daniels), he left his old place of work and his life's work - very reluctantly. In 2017, he initially bought Glenallachie with the proceeds from the sale.
In the years 2016 to 2017, the Lough Gill Distillery with his help 500 barrels matured Single Malt Irish Whiskeys and stored in the warehouses in Sligo. Billy Walker's old contacts with the Cooley distillery, which he had helped start up in the early 1990s, were useful. The stock also includes such diverse and exquisite casks as Oloroso caks from Jerez, Pedro Ximenez casks from Cordoba and Tokaji casks from Hungary.
Athru – Whiskey and mythology from Sligo
This unique, high-quality and extensive stock of barrels puts the Lough Gill Distillery will be able to bring various interesting bottlings of old Irish single malts onto the market until its own whiskeys are available. The whiskeys are released under the brand “ Athrú ” and reflect the mythology and beauty of the distillery’s homeland.