A Time in History | The land of the giants

Showing strength in times of adversity, Brian Wilson explores the history of Bushmills Distillery and discovers how it adapted in times of hardship to become the globally recognised brand it is today.

A triangle of destinations in the very north of Ireland make it, by any standard, a special part of the world. If your particular interests happen to be golf, geology and whiskey, then this is the centre of the universe.

To the west, lies Royal Portrush Golf Club which hosted the Open Championship in 2019 and has just been named as venue for 2025. Drive a few miles eastwards and you will come upon that extraordinary phenomenon, the Giant’s Causeway, with its 40,000 hexagonal basalt columns merging into the sea.

Five miles inland, at the apex, sits the village of Bushmills and its eponymous distillery. It’s tough competition but it would be fair to say that Bushmills is possibly the best-known name of the three around the world. That all rests on the reputation of the world’s oldest licensed distillery.

Like all good whiskeys – with or without an ‘e’ – Bushmills owes its existence to a pure and plentiful water supply. The River Bush flows more than 30 miles from the Antrim Hills. ‘Bush’ is a corruption of the Irish word for victory, ‘an Bhuais,’ but which particular victory is lost in the mists of battle-scarred time.

What matters is that the river flows through a fertile valley with a mineral base that makes it particularly pure and suitable for distilling. The water from one of its tributaries, Saint Columb’s Rill, is exclusive to the distillery. As Master Distiller Colum Egan says: “They called it after me before they knew I was coming.”

Colum, who has been at Bushmills for 20 years, makes a direct link between geology and the distillery. “Basalt rock is very prominent in this area and that is really what the water flows over. It’s what lays the foundation for everything else. We have our own unique taste, and the water is fundamental to that.

Bushmills is a lot about authenticity. It sounds simple but the hardest thing is to make the same thing every day. We have our consistent water source, we are very specific about the malted barley, we use the same casks. My favourite place to have a drink is on the basalt rocks – you could be in the same place, drinking the same whiskey, in the same environment a century ago.”

Bushmills’ status as the world’s oldest licensed distillery stems from a disposition made by James I of Great Britain (and VI of Scotland) in 1608, against a background of political upheaval in Ireland; particularly the province of Ulster which has resonance down to the present day. The key player was a military adventurer, Sir Thomas Phillips, who was prominent in ensuring a rebel defeat in the Nine Years War which kicked off in 1593, prompted by Ulster chieftains resisting the spread of London rule.

Their defeat is seen as the beginning of the end for ‘Gaelic Ireland’ and promptly led to the Plantation of Ulster. For his efforts,

Bushmills credits its unique taste to the water drawn from Saint Columb’s Rill, a tributary of the River Bush, which flows past the distillery.

Phillips was generously rewarded with lands and powers within Antrim. The package bestowed by the King included, happily for future history and branding, the Bushmills licence to distil.

This allowed Phillips “for the next seven years, within the countie of Colrane, otherwise called O Cahanes countrey, or within the territorie called Rowte, in Co. Antrim, by himselfe or his servauntes, to make, drawe, and distil such and soe great quantities of aquavite, usquabagh and aqua composita, as he or his assignes shall thinke fitt; and the same to sell, vent, and dispose of to any persons, yeeldinge yerelie the somme 13s 4d...”

Precisely what happened within those seven years or the couple of centuries thereafter is largely lost in the haze, though it can be assumed that distilling continued throughout. Indeed, the Phillips licence was probably recognition that – particularly with whisky-hardened Scottish settlers being brought into the place – regulation was a better bet than suppression. Production of the illegal stuff was criminalised with harsher penalties however, in 1661.

In 1743, Bushmills was reported to be “in the hand of smugglers.” However, the Bushmills Old Distillery Company was established in 1784 by Hugh Anderson and the earliest recognisable distillery buildings emerged thereafter. In 1860 a Belfast spirit merchant named James McColgan and his partner Patrick Corrigan bought the distillery. The latter died five years later and his widow, Ellen Jane, took over the company’s business affairs and turned out to be a formidable lady.

Ellen Jane features prominently in a list of ‘women who helped to shape the worldwide whisky industry.’ She co-ran Bushmills with James McColgan after her husband’s death. While McColgan made the whiskey, Ellen Jane negotiated lease terms which ensured nobody used Bushmills’ water from Saint Columb’s Rill, an asset that persists to the present day.

An account of her life states: “Ellen Jane turned this already successful distillery into a serious international company that produced 100,000 gallons a year. She helped introduce electricity to the distillery and fought the old guard on past business procedures.

At the time, distillers often sold unaged bulk whiskey to blenders and other distillers in need of supply. This clear liquid would have lacked the nutty and sweeter characteristics of Bushmills. However, every drop of Bushmills was barrel-aged on the property, retaining its rich barrel flavours and colour.” Bushmills was and remains a ‘grain to glass’ distillery.

“When she sold Old Bushmills in 1880 for £3,000, Ellen Jane even negotiated a voting spot on the board of the new company, confirming her male peers’ respect in a country that typically did not offer women leadership positions. Not much else is known about Ellen Jane, but it’s interesting to think about how she would have ascended up today’s corporate hierarchy.” Indeed it is!

Then disaster struck. In 1885, a fire destroyed the distillery but within a few years it had been re-built with a mission to expand global reach. What better way than to have your own steamship, the SS Bushmills, traversing the oceans to carry the product to such exotic destinations as Philadelphia, New York, Singapore, Hong Kong and Yokohama. Sadly, the records show the SS Bushmills ended her life in less glamorous surroundings, when she ran aground on Anglesey in 1911.

By then, the United States was a huge market for Bushmills. The relative sweetness of Irish whiskey appealed to the American palate, and it is sometimes forgotten that half of the 44 million US citizens who even today claim Irish descent say they came from an Ulster-Scots background. A whiskey closely associated with not just Ireland, but Ulster had a head start in the market.

American Prohibition, which lasted from 1920 to 1933, had a devastating effect on the Irish whiskey industry in general but Bushmills managed to survive and built-up large stocks to await it ending. Until then, Irish whiskey had been much bigger than Scotch in the American market, so that with only a handful of Irish distilleries left, there was a huge void to fill.

The recent history of Bushmills has been one of growth, success and diversification into a range of distinctive whiskies, while never deviating from the core principles of production. Under the current owners, Casa Cuervo, there is a real pride in the history of the brand, a creative marketing strategy and an investment programme to match. The future has never looked brighter.

Colum Egan says: “It’s fantastic. For a long time, Bushmills was very quiet on innovation but that has changed in the last few years. We had all this stock sitting in the warehouse. Now we have a range of different ages and different casks. There’s a new distillery being commissioned which will double production – all while staying true to the core values.”

In a normal year, Bushmills hosts well over 100,000 visitors who enjoy first class distillery tours, full of the rich history which the distillery evokes, and with tastings to round off the experience. These have been offlimits for more than a year due to pandemicimposed restrictions. When they return, they will contribute to a unique tourist experience in this great corner of Ireland.