Early this morning — 10AM our time, 5AM your time — we stopped off in Kilbeggan to visit Ireland’s oldest licensed distillery. Although the original buildings of the distillery are no longer actively working, the townsfolk of Kilbeggan rescued the facilities from disuse and ruin in order to maintain the historical presence of the company.

We arrived as is our custom, early, and had a tour all to ourselves (two others joined us a half hour later). Our tour guide Carol walked us through both the buildings and the process of how Kilbeggan has made their whiskeys since 1757. We were immediately started off with a sample of a Whiskey Ginger, which is 1.25 oz whiskey and 4 to 5 oz of ginger ale. We were served in classic Glencairn whiskey glasses, augmented with a special harness and lanyard that allowed us to wear the glasses around our necks like a VIP pass for alcoholics.

One of the fascinating facts about the Kilbeggan Distillery is that all of its original automation was run by a single water wheel activated by water diverted from the neighboring River Brosna. Later in the life of the facility, the distillers added a steam engine to supplement the water wheel for when the water level of the river was too low.

At the end of the tour we were treated to a tasting of four different whiskeys: two Tyrconnell single malts, an 11 year Kilbeggan single malt, and a Connemara plated single malt. Since she was driving, Isabelle “bottled her own” from the whiskey glasses into small bottles so she could enjoy them later on.

The Kilbeggan facility does have a more modern wing which we were able to view, but not explore. We had an agent on the inside, however: a small black-and-white cat who had somehow managed to get into the workshop, and who was seen wandering around looking for a way out. None of the staff knew the cat or how it managed to sneak inside.