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Belfast: Private Whiskey Tour with McConnells Distillery
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From €499 per person
This is a private full-day trip from Dublin to Belfast, built around a visit to McConnell’s Distillery - one of the more unusual distillery settings you’ll find anywhere in Ireland. McConnell’s operates out of the former Crumlin Road Gaol, a Victorian-era prison that’s been transformed into a working whiskey production facility.
Your private driver-guide picks you up from your Dublin hotel, takes you up to Belfast with a sightseeing tour of the city’s main landmarks, and gives you free time for lunch and independent exploration. The distillery visit itself is a proper signature tour - not just a tasting room.
Groups are small, with a maximum of 5 travellers. The distillery is adults-only (18+).
McConnell’s Distillery - Signature Tour. You’ll hear the story behind the restoration of this historic Belfast whiskey brand and get an inside look at the process of crafting their triple-distilled, single malt Irish whiskey. The experience includes a welcome drink, tastings of McConnell’s 5 Year Old and McConnell’s Sherry Cask, and a taste of new make whiskey straight from the stills. This tour includes skip-the-line access.
Free time in Belfast. Use the time to explore the city on your own, grab lunch or, if you’d like, visit the Titanic Visitor Centre independently - note that Titanic entrance fees are not included in this tour.
Meeting point: Guests are picked up from their hotel in Dublin.
The distillery is inside the former Crumlin Road Gaol - give yourself a few minutes to take that in. The Gaol is a Victorian radial prison built in the 1840s and used up to 1996. McConnell’s moved in and built a working distillery in the old cell blocks. The building is part of the story: the same brick that held prisoners now holds copper stills. The skip-the-line access on your tour is worth knowing about - the gaol site draws its own visitors separately from the distillery tour.
Use the free time well - the Cathedral Quarter is close to the city centre. Belfast’s Cathedral Quarter - the grid of old bonded-warehouse streets off Hill Street and Waring Street - is the right place for lunch. Mourne Seafood Bar on Bank Street does their own oysters from Carlingford Lough and is the kind of lunch that stays with you. Right beside it is Kelly’s Cellars, a pub that’s been open since 1720 and doesn’t overclaim it.
If you skip Titanic Belfast, the waterfront walk is free. The Titanic Quarter waterfront - from the Lagan Weir past the SS Nomadic and the Glass of Thrones windows - is a 3 km flat walk that takes about an hour and doesn’t cost anything. You see the Harland & Wolff slipway where the Titanic was launched in 1911 and the Samson and Goliath cranes without buying the admission ticket.
Ask your driver-guide about the peace walls. The Falls and Shankill Roads are a short drive from the city centre, and your private guide is the right person to explain them. Around a hundred peace walls went up in 1969 as a temporary measure and are still there. A drive past the murals and the peace gates gives you context that the sightseeing stops alone won’t.
The Crown Liquor Saloon is ten minutes’ walk from the Titanic Quarter. If you’ve a gap before the pickup, the Crown on Great Victoria Street is a Victorian gin palace owned by the National Trust and run as a working pub. Get a snug if one is free. It’s the real thing, and it’s open all day.