Old Bushmills Distillery — Attraction in Clogher Anderson

Five stars for the tour today hosted by David (who was training David). I had arrived late yesterday without a booking and they were sold out, so the tip here is to book ahead. I booked for a tour today and arrived just after the previous tour started, so a quick walk across the street to the Spar for a coffee and then back to sit on the sofa and wait.

On the dot, the tour started. David reminded us that photographs are not permitted on the tour (a fear of batteries catching fire, which seems odd but okay) and that there would be stairs. Walking through the mashing room, the distilling room, the factory and the bottling plant, this is a live and very busy manufacturing facility. David provided lots of facts and the only one I remember is that there are 5000 barrels out there in the "barrel farm."

An hour later, we're back at the tasting room. I went with the 12 year old whiskey and it was fabulous. A little sweet with honey notes and maybe some vanilla. After that, there's a bar where you can buy more pours or skip that and head over to the gift shop. Tshirts and other merchandise plus whiskies that run from £25 to £2200! I got a two-pack for £25 because Google doesn't pay me for £2200 bottles of booze. (Google Maps doesn't pay me anything, but that's beside the point.)

Bushmills is pretty far away from everything but there are tour buses that leave from Belfast. Or you can do what I did - rent a car at Dublin and drive...

What a great place to visit, we were greeted at reception and asked to wait for our tour guide. The waiting area had a lot of history about the distillery to read while we waited. Jerry soon came over and introduced himself, made us all feel very welcome and relaxed, and a great sense of humour, too. Jerry took us around the distillery explaining every part of the process with great knowledge. Jerry was very clear and made sure everyone could understand what he was saying. Took the time to speak with all of us as we walked around the plant. It made our experience fantastic. Look forward to coming back again to be able to go around the distillery again in the future. You get a free taste of selected whiskey when you finish your tour. If you don't like neat whiskey, you can try the cocktial that has Bushmills whiskey in. Please see the picture for a photo of the cocktail. My partner had this, and she said it was really nice, I also tried it and agreed. After your sampling experience, which you can buy any if the other examples of Bushmills from the bar, you walk through to the gift shop, where you'll be greeted by Valerie and Ruth, they will look after you with any questions you might have, we had a great chat while looking around the shop. Thanks all for a great experience...

We visited Bushmills Distillery by coach as part of a day trip that visited many points of interest in Northern Ireland, including Giant's Causeway. We only had 45 minutes, however this was enough time to visit the shop and taste a few drams in the bar. Kids are only allowed in certain areas, but worth knowing there is a shop just along the road so our teenagers went off and bought ice creams while we had a look around.

The shop has a huge Whiskey area with lots of choice. It's worth knowing that Belfast International Airport has updated its security systems (as has Birmingham) and you can now carry up to 2 litres per person through security with no need to put liquids in a separate bag - everything can just be packed as normal. This was great because we were able to take a few bottles home with us.

The gift shop has some lovely items, all Bushmills related obviously - we bought marmalade, shortbread, miniature bottles and fudge as gifts (some we have put away for Christmas as they will last).

The bar is spacious and welcoming - you can try so many different Whiskeys (an advantage of being on a coach rather than driving). They also offer flights of several different ones to try.

Would have happily had longer here, but we managed to get a lot out of...