Kilbeggan

When we started, there was no money. If we wanted to get something done, we had to do it ourselves. We got the key and walked in one Saturday morning in 1983. Every place was covered in rubble and falling timbers. Totally derelict. All the roofs had fallen in, all the windows were blown out. It was a huge, sprawling complex of dilapidated buildings and we had absolutely nothing. Everybody brought their own tools. Chisels and hammers and saws, that kind of stuff. All I brought was a sweeping brush.There was something very appealing about the waterwheel. The sound of the water on it. The sight of it. It affected everybody really deeply. They realized that there was something more to the restoration of the distillery.


Years after the people of Kilbeggan came together to revive their distillery, this close-knit group arrives each morning determined to help it continue to thrive. From Office Manager to Distiller, each member plays a different role, but they are all dedicated to making sure Kilbeggan's legacy is both remembered and built upon.


When the doors of the Kilbeggan Distillery were shut in 1953, the people of Kilbeggan could’ve easily accepted defeat. They could’ve acknowledged that times had changed, and that fate had dealt them more than their share of bad breaks. They would do no such thing. The distillery meant too much to too many in the town. They would never let its smokestack be reduced to a monument, no matter what the world threw at them.