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festivals · Friday 26 June 2026 · Various 
Birdhill Coffee Festival
At The Old Barracks Coffee Roastery · Birdhill, Co. Tipperary
At The Old Barracks Coffee Roastery · Birdhill, Co. Tipperary
The Birdhill Coffee Festival is Ireland’s biggest home coffee festival, held across a long June weekend at The Old Barracks Coffee Roastery in north Tipperary. Now in its third year, it draws coffee growers, roasters, home brewers and food lovers from across the country to a 300-year-old former barracks building that overlooks lower Lough Derg. If you make coffee at home - whether with a cafetière, a pod machine or a proper espresso set-up - this is a weekend designed to make you better at it, and to enjoy the process along the way.
The festival has a clear split in purpose. Friday 26 June opens as a B2B day aimed at people working in or entering the coffee trade - aspiring café owners, small roasters, and anyone in the hospitality sector looking to sharpen their knowledge. Saturday and Sunday turn to the general public, with the roastery gardens opening up to a full programme of tastings, talks and hands-on sessions.
Across the weekend you can taste coffees sourced from farms around the world, all roasted on-site in Birdhill. A roasting village brings exhibitors and artisan producers together, and a coffee taste-off competition gives the crowd something to get involved in. There are latte masterclasses, brewing demonstrations covering everything from pour-over to espresso, and a well-stocked iced drinks bar for the warmer moments. La Marzocco home equipment is on display for anyone curious about upgrading their kit at home.
Friday evening includes a sunset BBQ dinner celebrating the 10th birthday of The Old Barracks, paired with a wine portfolio tasting - tickets for that are sold separately from the day passes. A pilates class in the gardens also features across the weekend, which gives a sense of how the festival positions itself: coffee as part of a wider good-life context, not just a caffeine delivery system.
Workshops require a day pass to access. Tickets start from around €25 and cover a range of pass options by day.
Birdhill sits in north Tipperary, roughly 20 kilometres south of Limerick city, just off the M7 motorway at the Birdhill junction. By car from Dublin, the drive is under two hours; from Cork it is around 90 minutes. The venue is well signposted in the village and has gardens large enough to accommodate the festival crowd, so parking is generally available on-site or close by.
The Old Barracks is also reachable by train - Birdhill is served by the Limerick to Ballybrophy line, with Killaloe-Ballina and Nenagh both nearby. Bus Éireann routes along the Limerick corridor pass through the area. If you are coming from Limerick city, a taxi or lift-share for the last stretch is straightforward.
The Old Barracks itself is worth taking time over - the building dates back 300 years and the outlook across lower Lough Derg towards Mount Moylussa is one of the better views in Tipperary. The Shannon and Lough Derg are minutes away, with walking trails and the water’s edge easy to reach after the festival. There is more to see in Birdhill and across Co. Tipperary.
Heading to The Old Barracks Coffee Roastery in Birdhill? Tipperary has plenty more to see. Read the Birdhill area guide, find what else is on, and explore the towns and villages nearby.