Midleton Distillery

In its early days the site was a woollen mill, then in 1825 the Murphy brothers, James, Jeremiah and Daniel opened their first distillery. Their ambitious project continued to grow in its first decades. The great famine of the 1840 reduced the demand for whiskey throughout Ireland. By the 1860’s a number of local distilleries including Midleton amalgamated to form the Cork Distilleries Company.

Despite once being the home to the largest pot still in the world at the time, the distillery was affected by the downturn in the fortunes of Irish whiskey in the first half of the 20th century. This was cause by several events, the continued success of blended whisky in Scotland, the trade war between Ireland and the UK and prohibition in the USA. All of which had a detrimental effect on the Irish whiskey industry.

By the 1960’s only a small number of distilleries remained on the island. Three of these decided to join forces under the name Irish Distillers in 1966. These three were John Jameson & Son, John Powers and Son and Cork Distilleries Company. The decision was taken to close the facilities at the first two, who were based in Dublin, and concentrate their operation in Cork, with a new facility to be built beside the original distillery at Midleton.

In mid-1975 production started at the new Midleton distillery, while operations closed the same day at the old distillery opposite. Jameson and Powers both in Dublin closed a year later.

In 2013 Irish Distillers reaffirmed their commitment to be the number one producer of Irish whiskey with a €100 million investment to boost production at the distillery. In 2019 an additional €130 million was spent to further expand and upgrade production at this impressive distillery.

As the home of whiskey brands like Jameson, Powers, Paddy, Redbreast, Midleton Very Rare and the Spot Whisky ranges, the distillery is a true icon for Ireland and its whiskey heritage.