Overview
Jameson Distillery Bow St. (informally the Jameson Distillery) is an Irish whiskey tourist attraction located just off Smithfield Square in Dublin, Ireland. Jameson Distillery Bow St. is the original site where Jameson Irish Whiskey was distilled until 1971. It is now a visitors centre that provides guided tours, tutored whiskey tastings, JJs bar and a gift shop.
Location and contact details
Location: Jameson's, Bow Street, Dublin
Visit Type: Vistor Centre
Co-ordinates: 53.348900, -6.276310
Web: https://www.jamesonwhiskey.com/en-IE/visit-us/jameson-distillery-bow-st Facts and figures
| Location | Dublin |
| Founded | 1780 |
| Founder | John Jameson |
| Owner | Pernod Ricard |
Tours
Bow St. Experience
€20
Follow in the footsteps of the founding fathers of Jameson on the only tour of the original Jameson distillery in Dublin. They’ve been a constant presence in the heart of the beautiful city since 1780, and as you can imagine, they've seen quite a few things in their time. The Ambassador will guide you for a serving of heritage and history on the definitive Jameson tour experience - stories, craic, a comparative whiskey tasting and of course, a complimentary Jameson in the exact spot where it all began.
Remember, the early bird catches the worm so be sure to arrive 15 minutes before your tour and check in at reception.
Review: Bow St. Experience (10:00 on 11/09/2018)
Price: €17
Like the Tullamore Dew Experience, this is not a distillery (although it was once), but a vistor experience which takes you through the history of Jameson's and Irish whiskey..
The guide was very good with a humerous line of banter and anecdotes. The history of Jameson's is well covered as well as the process of making Irish whiskey and included some videos and interactive parts of the tour.
The website and ticket says to arrive 15 minutes early, but the doors not opened until 955 and I had a 1000 booking. This meant I had to stand around outside and then there was a bit of a rush to get everyone in and ticketed prior to the tour start; tis meant there was a slight delay to the tour starting. Fortunately, I had nothing pendind immediately afterwards and I presume later tours won't suffer from such issues.
The tour is for a maximum of thirty people, and I thinkwe had about 16-20on the tour I was on. However, while the buildings are the orignal distillery buildings, the experience has been designed with plenty of space so it didn't feel at all cramped.
Well, worth visiting for an introduction to Jameson's and the history of Irish whisky.
If I have one nitpick, it is that a day or so after the tour, I received an email with a discount code to use for booking a tour of the Jameson Midleton Distillery. Unfortunately, I had booked all tours before I left so was unable to benefit from the discount. The discount code could have been emailed on booking of the tour instead of afte the tour had taken place.
by booking a morning tour, I got a reduction to €17 rather than the full €20 standard price.
History
The original distillery on this site was called the Bow Street Distillery and was established in 1780. John Jameson took full ownership (he was previously the general manager) and expanded the distillery in 1805. By 1810, the operation was officially renamed to John Jameson & Son’s Bow Street Distillery. The distillery grew to an upwards of 5 acres by 1886.
At this time, it was described by many as a "city within a city". The distillery also housed a Smithy, Cooperage, saw mills, engineers, carpenters, painters and coppersmiths’ shops. Water for the distillery came from two deep wells dug underneath the site. Cellars were also dug underneath nearby streets to store maturing whiskey, while four stills and two wash stills, each holding 24,000 gallons, were heated by both fire and steam coils above.
Following a difficult period that included American Prohibition, Ireland’s trade war with Great Britain, and the introduction of Scotch blended whiskey, the Jameson distillery fell on hard times and decided to form the Irish Distillers Group with their previous rivals, the Cork Distilleries Company and John Power & Son in 1966. Eventually, it became one of the last distilleries in Ireland to close in 1971. The operation was then moved out of Dublin to the New Midleton Distillery.
