Old Bushmills Distillery, Bushmills, Co.Antrim. The Home of the ledgendary Bushmills Irish Whiskey. Located three miles away from The Giants Causeway.

History

Bushmills Distillery was founded in 1608 by Sir Thomas Phillips who was granted a licence to distill by King James I. It was not untill 1784, 176 years after it was founded, that it officially registered as a company. In 1885 the distillery was burnt to the ground, but having already earned worldwide fame for its whiskey it was soon rebuilt and back in production. The company had its own steamboat, The S.S Bushmills which it used to export its whiskey to America, China, Japan and Singapore. When Prohibition in the US was brought in many people thought Bushmills would be severely affected by the loss of its main market, but this did not affect Bushmils as it was expected to. During the time of prohibition the company was bought by Wilson Boyd in 1923, he believed that prohibition would end soon. Boyd geared up for expansion and had crates of whiskey ready to export the minute prohibiton ended, which it did ten years later. During World War II distilling was forced to stop, but Bushmills stayed busy, the factory was partly converted to accomadate American, Brtish and other alied forces troops. The distillery has since been sold to Issac Wolfson, Irish Distillers, Pernard Ricard and in 2005 was sold to Diageo in a £200 million deal. Diageo also owns famous alcoholic brands such as Guinness, Harp, Baileys, Smithwicks, Smirnoff and many others.