The Boatyard Distillery is situated on the banks of Lough Erne, County Fermanagh, North West Ireland. Boatyard is Fermanagh’s first legal distillery since 1890. Records suggest that the county town, Enniskillen, had two operational distilleries at the end of the 1800s. It is even thought there was a gin palace.
Our story begins in 2013 when the founder, Joe McGirr, started with planning. Joe had a pedigree within the spirits business, having worked at The Glenmorangie Company for 10 years. Whilst in Scotland he had a dream to return to his native Fermanagh to set up a distillery.
Move forward to 2016 and this dream became a reality with the Boatyard Distillery opening for business.
Joe grew up on a dairy farm in Enniskillen. Returning home to set up his business has very much allowed this to be a family affair.
Ever-present within the distillery team since day one is his sister, Teresa. The poetry on the labels is written by elder sister Marie. As for the farm this too is in safe hands with brother Brian looking over the land, which also has a botanical used in our gin growing on it. The distillery takes its name from the disused Boatyard that it’s built on. It makes us unique as a distillery as visitors can arrive just as easily by boat as they can by car.
This product of Ireland celebrates the local land with the addition of sweet gale which is used as a botanical in our gin recipe. All other ingredients are 100% organic. In our vodka production only organic wheat grown in Ireland is used in this farm to bottle product. We believe in being innovative, truly transparent, obsessed with quality and passionate about distillation. There are no short cuts when it comes to producing our spirits.
There simply can be no blurred lines here.
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