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Walsh Whiskey Distillery & Community of Royal Oak Welcome Arrival of Giant Whiskey Pots

Copper Pot & Column Stills to Distil Up to 8 Million Bottles of Whiskey Annually 

Royal Oak, Ireland– 30 September 2015: What is set to be one of the largest independent whiskey distilleries in Ireland, the Walsh Whiskey Distillery at Royal Oak, took a big step closer to being commissioned next January with the arrival, today, of almost 30 tonnes of copper and steel whiskey distilling equipment. The precious cargo made its first and last ever journey all of 1,046 kilometres (650 miles) by road and sea from Forsyths in north-west of Scotland. The crown jewels in the shipment are the three giant copper pot stills and column stills that will be the prime engines in the distillation of up to 8 million bottles of premium, craft, Irish whiskey annually.

There to greet the convoy as it arrived at the 18th century estate were Bernard and Rosemary Walsh, (the founders of Walsh Whiskey) and their family, company employees and the community of the small village of Royal Oak which has been very supportive of the €25 million project since it was announced in 2013. The whiskey distillery is the first to be developed in the south-east of Ireland 200 years respectively.

Weighing between four and five tonnes each and scaling up to 6.5 metres in height, the largest of the pot stills will have a capacity of 15,000 litres. Both of whiskey’s main ingredients, water and barley, will be in plentiful local supply from the surrounding barley-growing farms and the Barrow Valley Aquifer, a massive natural underground reservoir containing 200 million cubic metres of water.

The distillery will produce Walsh Whiskey’s critically acclaimed, award winning, ultra-premium Irish whiskey brands – The Irishman and Writerṣ Tears. The distillery will be unique as the only distillery in Ireland to produce all three types of Irish whiskey in one still house, namely – pot, malt and grain.