Burren Distillery — County Clare Single Malt Whisky

Burren Distillery is an Irish whiskey distillery located in Newtown, near Ballyvaughan, in the Burren region of County Clare, Ireland. It was founded in 2019 and is currently owned by Burren Distillers Ltd, headed by founder Noel Ó Lochlainn. It is distinguished by its revival of "Sean Gael" — pre-modern, native Irish distilling methods — using hand floor-malted heritage barley, direct-fired all-copper pot stills, and Irish sessile oak casks.

History

The Ó Lochlainn family's plans to build a distillery on their land near Ballyvaughan first drew public attention in 2015, when the project was granted planning permission by Clare County Council following some local debate about siting a distillery within the protected Burren landscape. Founder Noel Ó Lochlainn built the project around the family motto "De Petra Melle" ("honey from the rock"), aiming for a whiskey made by hand and rooted in the history of the area. Production began in 2019, making Burren one of a wave of new micro-distilleries that helped push the number of operating Irish whiskey distilleries past thirty by the end of that year. Rather than following standard modern Irish whiskey production, Burren revived what it calls "Sean Gael" — the native, indigenous distilling approach of old Ireland — hand floor-malting heritage barley grown under crop rotation, distilling in traditional direct-fired, all-copper pot stills, and maturing the spirit in casks made from Irish sessile oak. Process water is drawn from an on-site well and collected rainwater, and the distillery is enrolled in Ireland's Origin Green sustainability programme, planting around 100 oak trees each year. In 2025, Clare County Council approved an extension to the distillery's bonded warehouse and a new dry store, reflecting its continued growth. Burren Distillers now welcomes visitors for pre-booked tastings and tours at its Ballyvaughan site, including a chance to see barley being floor-malted by hand.

Quick Facts

• Region: County Clare (The Burren), Ireland
• Founded: 2019
• Owner: Burren Distillers Ltd (founder Noel Ó Lochlainn)
• Status: Active
• Stills: Direct-fired, all-copper pot stills

Core Range

Burren's core release is its Irish Whiskey Single Malt (45% ABV, 70cl), hand floor-malted from heritage barley, distilled in direct-fired copper stills and matured in Irish sessile oak casks. The distillery's inaugural bottling, the First Release Single Malt gift box (45% ABV, hand-numbered, with an accompanying 5cl sample), was issued as a one-time edition that will not be reproduced, and limited allocations are also made available to members of the Burren Distillers Club.