Cooley Distillery

The Cooley Distillery was the brainchild of Irishman John Teeling and was the first new whiskey distillery to be set up in Ireland in over 100 years.

Cooley was set up with a clear vision to rescue some of the famous old Irish whiskey brands and distilleries that had been mothballed during the previous 50 years.

The Cooley Distillery was founded in 1987 when John Teeling bought the former state owned alcohol plant on the Cooley Peninsula. The plant was built in the 1950's to turn diseased potatoes into industrial alcohol and was converted in less than two years by John Teeling into two distilleries - a pot still and a patent still operation.

The Cooley Distillery takes its name from the location of the distillery at the foothills of the Cooley Mountains in County Louth. Acquisitions included the assets of the old Andrew A Watt Distillery in Co. Derry which was established in 1762 and John Locke and Co. of Kilbeggan which was established in 1757; the latter is the oldest licensed distillery in the world.

The original distillery on the Cooley peninsula was joined in 2007 by a micro distillery in the old Locke's Distillery in Kilbeggan. Read more about Kilbeggan here.

Today the distillery produces three styles of Irish single malt whiskey, several blends, and a small batch single grain. Distillation continues to take place at the Cooley Distillery with the cooperage and ageing cellars in the John Locke’s Distillery in Kilbeggan.

Cooley produces Kilbeggan and Lockes whiskeys, as well as Connemara single malt which is Ireland's only peated single malt whiskey. It also produces Tyrconnell single malt and Greenore, Ireland's oldest single grain whiskey. Other products include Inishowen and Millars blended whiskey, Michael Collins single malt, and a Michael Collins blended version.

Cooley uses only the finest Irish barley and has its own spring water source coming from the Sliabh na Gloch river high up in the Cooley Mountains.

Cooley Stills What makes Cooley's whiskey distillery distinctive is their use of small copper pot stills with very large necks. These cause the spirits to take 50 percent longer to pass through, and the distillers believe that the result is a more refined product. In addition, like most Scotch whisky many Cooley brand whiskeys are distilled only twice as opposed to the more common Irish method of distilling the spirits three times. This gives Cooley's products much more flavour than most Irish whiskeys. The whiskeys are then matured in the 200 year old granite warehouses of Kilbeggan Distillery located in County Westmeath, some 60 miles away.