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The Old Kilbeggan Distillery is located
in the midlands of Ireland and is now
over 250 years old. Kilbeggan Distillery was first
licensed in 1757 by Mathew MacManus,
making it the oldest licensed distillery
in the world. The next recorded owner was
Patrick Brett in 1833. John Locke
acquired the distillery that is situated
on the banks of the river Brusna in
1843.
 By 1887 the distillery had been passed
on to John Locke’s sons John Edward and
James Harvey.
As with all Irish distilleries they fell
on hard times during the 1920's. American
Prohibition started in 1919, there was
punitive duty rises in Ireland combined
with the "troubles " and the formation
of the Irish free state with the
resultant trade war with England, which
denied sales to the then UK and the then
"British Empire" and colonies.
During this period of difficult trading
John Edward Locke died in 1920 and his
brother James Harvey died in 1927 on the
latter’s death his shares passed to his
daughters Florence and Mary. However
they had to surrender these shares as
collateral to the Hibernian Bank. At
some point the sisters relinquished
day-to-day control to two senior
employees Joseph Cooney, Company
secretary and Joseph Coffey Chief
distiller.
By 1931 all that was left, in the free
state, of the great Irish whisky
industry was Locke’s Kilbeggan
distillery and Tullamore. The
giant Dublin distilleries of Powers and
Jamesons plus the Cork Distillers
Company.
From 1931 the distillery was
experiencing an up turn in fortune and
in 1938 built a new warehouse, due to
the sales achieved by Joseph Cooney in
the USA and Canada.
In 1947 the Sisters decided to sell the
distillery. Three fraudsters attempted
to gain and sell the large quantity of
mature whiskey stock for a large profit.
They failed to produce the deposit money
and this minor scam should have been
forgotten. However an ambitious
opposition member accused government
officials of being involved in the scam.
This so called scandal (that never was)
filled the Irish newspapers for months,
badly damaged the distillery’s
reputation and drove away any buyers or
investors.
The 1949 distilling season had to be
extended due to the old 1890s distillery
equipment breaking down and had to be
repaired. However a talented distiller
JJ Hogan joined the company and invested
£55,000 in new equipment.
In April 1952
the Irish government raised the spirit
duty from £6.85 to £8.80 a proof gallon
considerably cutting demand. By the
November of 1953 Locke’s could not
afford the duty to release the whisky
from bond for the Christmas period and
distilling ceased soon after.
The distillery survived until November
1958 when a debenture issued to the bank
in 1953 became due. Locke’s could not
raise payment so the bank called in the
receiver and ended 201 years of
distilling history.
In 1988 the Cooley Distillery acquired
the Kilbeggan Distillery from its
then owner Lee Mallaghan for an exchange
of Cooley shares and a place on the
Cooley board. Cooley restored the
warehousing and used it to mature its
whiskey produced in the Cooley
distillery.
 In
March
2007, after laying silent for 50 years distilling recommenced in Kilbeggan
using low wines produced in Cooley. When
starting up, the distillery only had one
pot still albeit over 170 years old
making it the oldest working pot still
in the world.
A second still was commissioned from
Forsyth’s of Rothes in the Speyside
region of Scotland as a replica of the
ancient pot still currently in
operation, although the new pot still
was slightly larger - 3000 litres
compared to the ancient 2000 litre pot
still. This was installed in April
2009 and was placed in operation in May
2009.
The spirit currently being
produced in Kilbeggan is triple
distilled Malt whiskey contrary to the
double distilled whiskey produced at
Cooley. This is another
step in the rejuvenation of the Old
Kilbeggan Distillery. For the time being
mashing and fermentation continues to
done at Cooley.
The maturation of the spirit is being
monitored closely and will, in time, be
a light easy drinking Malt whiskey and
the first whiskey went on
sale in late 2010.
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