West Cork Bourbon Cask Whiskey

About West Cork

Westward Cork Distillers was founded by childhood friends John O’Connell, Ger McCarthy, and Denis McCarthy. The two cousins joined up with O’Connell, who comes from a long line of (illicit) distillers. The operation started in Denis’ house with 2 small stills brought from a schnapps producer in Switzerland. and it wasn’t until 2014 that they expanded considerably and moved to Market Street in Skibbereen, making much of the equipment by hand as the need arose. A new distillery opened its doors in 2020 on Marsh Road in the same town.

The Marsh Road distillery has a capacity of 4mln liters of pure alcohol and currently staffs over 80 people, making it the largest family-owned Irish distillery. 8 pot stills and 2 column stills are currently running, with additional 3 stills dedicated to the production of gin. With 5 bottling lines operating non-stop, they produce 2,000 bottles per hour. 7 on-site warehouses store up to 55,000 casks of spirits. They aim to keep expanding while adopting sustainable practices and sourcing local ingredients wherever possible.