FOR the first time in nearly 130 years, Fermanagh has its own distillery producing gin, with whiskey and vodka also in the pipeline. 

The Herald can exclusively reveal today that Ireland’s newest distillery, the Boatyard has just started production at the picturesque Tully Bay

Marina on the banks of Lough Erne in Enniskillen. 

The Boatyard is one of only five distilleries in the North and the first working distillery in Enniskillen since 1887. It’s the brainchild of Coa man Joe McGirr, who has worked within the industry for over 15 years with Glenmorangie and Moet Hennessy. In 2014, he joined the London Distillery Company as Chief Operating Officer but has always hoped to relocate back to his native Fermanagh.

The concept for The Boatyard Distillery was born three years ago with the simple ethos to create award winning spirits from local raw materials. Since then Joe and his team have built the concept through to location, engineering, planning permission, HMRC bonded spirit approval, spirit creation and branding. 

The distillery is based across two buildings on the Lough Shore Road site. 

The first phase of work will see the creation of a visitor centre later this year. Hosting distillery tours, gin tastings and housing a retail shop, this will be another welcome boost to the local tourism industry. 

Small-batch gin is now being developed at the Boatyard, one of the few distilleries in Ireland and the UK to produce the base alcohol used to make gin with brand new technology. 

Their distinctive distillation process will give the Boatyard Distillery absolute control over the first part of the process which the owners say is not possible when buying in pre-made base spirit from other suppliers.

“This is our new take on the brave new world of gin and especially Irish gin. This base spirit will be infused with a unique blend of botanicals selected by a botanist specially trained in using wild plants to make and flavour alcohol. The production of the base spirit, and the careful selection of local botanical ingredients will help give the Boatyard gin a distinctive taste profile to stand out against competitors in the market,” Joe explained. 

“We are really excited to finally begin production of our first product. We have come a long way in a

relatively short amount of time and are lucky to have a strong and experienced team behind us. 

Not only that, but we have the most incredible distillery backdrop in the world where visitors can reach the door by land or by water,” he added. 

The second phase of structural work will see the creation of a vodka production area. This will be one of the first vodkas in Ireland to be distilled from locally harvested potatoes.

Work on this phase will start after completing the successful funding and investment round and will get underway early next year.