Old Bushmills Distillery

Portrush is a resort on the coast of Co Antrim, with harbour installations of 1827-36 by John Rennie, and a spectacular railway station of 1892-3, designed by Berkely Deane, now used for other purposes, while trains call at modern, utilitarian platforms. The depot, a passenger station and some catenary posts remain of an electric tramway, powered by the Salmon’s Leap hydro-electric power station, that opened to Bushmills in 1883, and to the Giant’s Causeway in 1887.

The Bushmills Distillery is said to date from 1608, which a license was granted to Sir Thomas Phillips by James I. It is certainly has the longest continuous history of any whiskey (or whisky) distillery in the British Isles. Visitors are able to view the successive stages of whiskey production, malting, fermentation, the process of triple distillation, and maturation in oak casks that have previously been used for Bourbon, sherry, or, for special bottlings, Madeira.