Ireland’s whiskey trail is pouring money into rural towns. More than one million people visited Irish whiskey distilleries in the year to June 2026, the second year in a row the industry has broken through that mark, and visitors are now spending noticeably more on each trip.
The figures come from the Irish Whiskey Association’s annual Irish Whiskey Way survey, published on Tuesday 27 October by Drinks Ireland, part of business group Ibec.
The numbers behind the boom
- 1,040,159 visitors between June 2025 and June 2026, up by more than 30,000 on the previous year.
- Average spend of about €50 per person, up from roughly €42 in 2025, a rise of almost a fifth.
- More than a third of visitors did not drink alcohol on site.
- 73% of distilleries on the Irish Whiskey Way are in rural areas.
Americans remain the biggest single group of visitors, followed by people from Ireland, Britain, Germany and France.
The growth is all the more notable because the wider tourism sector struggled for parts of last year. Central Statistics Office figures showed overseas visitor numbers and spending fell for much of 2025, the association noted, yet distilleries held on to strong footfall from both overseas and domestic visitors.
Galway and the west on the rise
The big Dublin and Cork names still dominate. The five most visited experiences were the Jameson Distillery on Bow Street in Dublin, the Old Bushmills Distillery in Co Antrim, Teeling Whiskey Distillery in Dublin, the Midleton Distillery Experience in Co Cork and the Shed Distillery in Co Leitrim.
But the fastest growth is happening in smaller, more remote spots, including in our own region:
- JJ Corry Irish Whiskey Bonders, Co Clare: up 85%
- Ardara Distillery, Co Donegal: up 33%
- Skellig Six18 Distillery, Co Kerry: up 20%
- The Shed Distillery of PJ Rigney, Co Leitrim: up 20%
- Titanic Distillers, Co Antrim: up 18%
- Ahascragh Distillery, Co Galway: up 17%
Leitrim’s Shed Distillery stands out for appearing both in the top five by visitor numbers and among the fastest growers.
Not just about the drink
The fact that more than a third of visitors skip the tasting glass tells its own story. Distilleries are increasingly selling themselves as cultural attractions, with food pairings, cocktail classes, tours and local history on offer, and as a way for tourists to get under the skin of rural communities.
Eoin Ó Catháin, director of the Irish Whiskey Association, said reaching one million visitors for a second year showed Irish whiskey tourism has “real staying power”, according to RTÉ. He said visitors were spending more and travelling further, bringing that value into rural areas, and welcomed the Government’s focus on food and experience-based tourism in its Tourism Plan. He also called for continued support from Government and State agencies so that whiskey tourism can grow in every region.
Speaking at an industry conference in Brussels, Irish Examiner travel writer Thom Breathnach said Irish distilleries were well placed to benefit from shifting traveller tastes, citing data that a growing share of global travellers plan to avoid overcrowded destinations and that a large majority now put the experience ahead of the destination, Drinks Ireland reported.
For anyone planning a winter day out, the trend is good news: many of the fastest-growing experiences are off the beaten track, from the Clare coast to east Galway, and visiting does not require drinking at all.
What happens next
The Irish Whiskey Way, the association’s touring trail linking member distilleries, launched in November 2025, so next year’s survey will be the first full-year test of its impact. The industry will be pressing the Government and tourism agencies for more support, and the key question is whether average spend keeps climbing if overseas tourism remains under pressure. With Ahascragh among the fastest risers, Galway’s place on the whiskey map looks set to grow.
Sources
- Drinks Ireland (Ibec): Visitors spending more as Irish Whiskey distilleries pass one million mark for second year running (27 October 2026)
- RTÉ: Irish Whiskey distillery visitors pass one million mark (27 October 2026)
- Drinks Retailing: Irish whiskey distilleries attract more than one million visitors (28 October 2026)
Featured image: Cooley Distillery – Low Res.jpg by Whisky lover, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
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