Whiskey · County Westmeath
Kilbeggan Distillery
The oldest licensed distillery still working, small and wooden and dusty in the right way. Home of peated Connemara.
Our position
Worth an hour if the road goes past. Do not build a trip around it.
Kilbeggan has held a licence since 1757 and still runs original equipment, including a wooden mash tun and a pot still old enough to be in a museum, which in effect it is. The scale is domestic. You can see the whole process from one spot, and that is the appeal.
It is also where Connemara is made, the peated Irish single malt that quietly breaks the rule that Irish whiskey is unpeated. Order it here and again later in a bar to see what a bad assumption it corrects.
The distillery sits directly on the Dublin to Galway road, which is the only reason to time a visit. Break the drive, take the hour, have a small batch at the bar, carry on west.
Book the visit
Which tour to book at Kilbeggan
Kilbeggan Distillery Experience
About 1 hour · from €18
A working museum with a tasting. Good value, no queue, easy stop.
Check dates and book
Prefer to build the whole trip first? Plan the week around this distillery.
Buy on site
- Connemara peated single malt
- Kilbeggan Small Batch Rye
- Tyrconnell single malt cask finishes
Drink it here after
Sean's Bar
Athlone
Twenty minutes west. Claims 900 AD and is a legitimate stop on the way.
Practical
- On the way to
- Galway and the west
- From Dublin
- About 1 hour 15 minutes
- Time needed
- One hour is enough
Last checked September 2026. Source: the distillery.
Questions we get
- Is Irish whiskey ever peated?
- Rarely, but yes. Connemara, made at Kilbeggan, is the best known peated Irish single malt and is worth ordering precisely because it upsets the rule that Irish whiskey is unpeated.