The Echlinville Distillery launches new walking trails and café

17th October 2022

The Echlinville Distillery (Kircubbin, Co. Down) has launched its enhanced visitor offering with the addition of new walking trails and café to its award winning distillery, situated on the historic Echlinville estate.

The distillery has made a significant investment in enhancing its visitor offering with the assistance of funding from Tourism Northern Ireland.

Visitors to Echlinville can enjoy the distillery’s acclaimed Tour & Tipple experience and take in the beauty of the historic Echlinville Estate thanks to newly constructed walking trails developed with support from Tourism Northern Ireland’s Experience Development Programme 2020-21.

Peter Rogan from The Echlinville Distillery said: “We are delighted to relaunch our popular Tour and Tipple experience and welcome visitors back to Echlinville to enjoy the sights, sounds, smells and flavours of Ireland’s first farm distillery and the beauty of the Echlinville Estate and the surrounding area.

“Our visitors hear all about our field-to-glass approach, which sees our spirits distilled from barley grown, harvested and malted on our distillery farm. We are one of very few distilleries to produce spirit from the ground up, and that is something we are hugely proud of.

“The Echlinville tour also includes a visit to our whiskey maturation warehouse, where our casks of single malt and pot still whiskies are gently ageing to perfection. Our guests get an insight into the whiskey maturation process and the various casks we use to age and finish our spirit. Having worked up a thirst, the tour finishes with a choice of two drinks from our range of award-winning whiskeys, gins or poitín.

“We are also thrilled to unveil our new distillery and woodland walking trails – a network of paths that allow visitors to enjoy the beauty of the historic Echlinville Estate. The trails wind around the stunning Echlinville Manor House and through our barley fields with views of the beautiful stone bridge that crosses what was once the Echlinville Canal and Ireland’s oldest coral clad Folly – a stunning ornamental garden feature built in by the Echlin family in the eighteenth century as a statement of their wealth and status.

“With the opening of our new Distiller’s Rest Café, visitors are also welcome to call in for a coffee, a walk and browse through our distillery shop, regardless of whether or not they are partaking in a tour.”

Located near the shores of Strangford Lough, The Echlinville Distillery is just a one hour from Belfast and ten minutes from Portaferry and the scenic Strangford Lough ferry crossing. With the stunning scenery, beautiful beaches and several great restaurants within a short drive, a visit to Echlinville can be combined with local attractions for a wonderful day out in the Ards Peninsula.

Peter added: “In terms of tourism and hospitality, this little corner of Ireland has much to offer visitors from all around Ireland and beyond, and we at Echlinville are proud to be a part of it. We thank Tourism Northern Ireland for their support for this latest phase of our development and we look forward to working with them in future to continue to put Strangford Lough and the surrounding area on the global tourism map.”

Eimear Callaghan, Head of Programmes at Tourism Northern Ireland, said: “We are delighted to support the newly constructed walking trails at Echlinville Distillery which will add another important dimension to the tour and tasting experience. The evolution of tourism experiences like this shows that innovation continues to be at the forefront of the development of the industry here. I have no doubt that this exciting addition will be central to the visitor experience in County Down, creating new and compelling reasons to visit the area.”

The Echlinville Distillery Tour and Tipple is priced at £20 per person and booking is advised. For tour dates, times and booking visit echlinville.com or contact the Echlinville Distillery team at info@echlinville.com or phone 028 4273 8597. The Echlinville walking trails and Distiller’s Rest Café are open 10am-5pm Wednesday to Saturday and 10am-4pm on Sunday.