Bushmills Irish Whiskey

The Old Bushmills Distillery is located in Bushmills, County Antrim in Northern Ireland. The distillery uses water drawn from Saint Columb's Rill, which is a tributary of the River Bush.

The Bushmills Old Distillery Company itself was not established until 1784 by Hugh Anderson, although the date 1608 is printed on the label but refers to an earlier royal licence which granted to a local landowner to distil whiskey in the area.

Bushmills suffered many lean years with numerous periods of closure. In 1860 a Belfast spirit merchant named Jame McColgan and Patrick Corrigan bought the distillery. In 1885, the original Bushmills buildings were destroyed by fire but the distillery was swiftly rebuilt. In 1890, a steamship owned and operated by the distillery, SS Bushmills, made its maiden voyage across the Atlantic to deliver Bushmills whiskey to America. It called at Philadelphia and New York City before heading on to Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Yokohama.

For more information, visit the Bushmills Distillery website.