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Distillery Tour: Poitín & Whiskey Heritage
5.0
286 Ratings
Galway
Discover the rich history and unique flavors of Micil Distillery. Experience the art of gin, poitín, and whiskey making in South Connemara.
Discover the rich history and unique flavors of Micil Distillery. Experience the art of gin, poitín, and whiskey making in South Connemara.
Duration:
1 hour
Cancellation:
24 hours
Highlights
- Micil Distillery - An intriguing exploration of Galway’s first operational distillery in more than a century
- Micil Distillery - An intriguing exploration of Galway’s first operational distillery in more than a century
What's Included
- Poitín and Whiskey Tasting Experience
- Professional tour guide
- Poitín and Whiskey Tasting Experience
- Professional tour guide
What's Not Included
- Food, however Oslo Bar serves food daily
- Food, however Oslo Bar serves food daily
Additional Information
Explore Galway city’s only operational distillery and uncover the intriguing tale of Ireland’s original spirit, poitín, which was banned for over 300 years. Discover the authentic history of poitín and whiskey, learn about their production, and find out what makes Micil’s spirits truly special.
The guide will lead you on a journey from the hills of South…
Explore Galway city’s only operational distillery and uncover the intriguing tale of Ireland’s original spirit, poitín, which was banned for over 300 years. Discover the authentic history of poitín and whiskey, learn about their production, and find out what makes Micil’s spirits truly special.
The guide will lead you on a journey from the hills of South Connemara, where the founder first crafted poitín in a modest stillhouse, to the present-day distillery managed by his great-great-great-grandson. Throughout the tour, enjoy daring, humorous, and heartfelt stories from the family’s illicit history, while immersing yourself in the sights, sounds, and aromas of a functioning distillery.
The tour features three guided tastings from the award-winning collection – a poitín, a whiskey, and a gin – all distilled on-site. This engaging, hands-on experience combines heritage, craftsmanship, and flavor, making it a must-visit for every curious traveler to Galway.
- Gift shop is available at the distillery
- Minimum age to taste alcohol is 18 years
- The distillery can be a little chilly sometimes, so best to bring a jacket
Location
The Oslo Bar
Upper Salthill Road
Come to the Oslo Bar in Salthill. Come into the bar, walk towards the back and we are up the stairs to your left!
Cancellation Policy
For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.
For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.
Customer Ratings
5.0
(286 Ratings)
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M1485jehilarym
Sep 14, 2025
Top Notch Distillery - Brilliant experience. It was short and sweet but very enjoyable. They are very generous with the amount of alcohol they offer for such a cheap price. Definitely worth doing both for the taste, the history lessons and the vibe in there. A small brewery producing great drinks.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Roam03977043609
Sep 8, 2025
Great time learning about Micil Distillery - Such a great time, and Michael was a fantastic host. It was great learning about all the different spirits, and everything was so tasty
Review provided by Tripadvisor
651leanneq
Oct 10, 2023
Top 5 highlight of our trip - The Micil Distillery demonstration and tasting experience was a top 5 highlight of our trip to the West Coast of Ireland. The unassuming location in the back of a dark pub made me wonder what did we get ourself into. Well, let me say that Tom’s passion for his work teaching us the history of the Micil Distillery and the commitment of the family to produce an excellent product steeped in history shone through in his presentation. Tim’s easy going and friendly nature made him a joy to listen to and taught us so much. The poitin and whiskey tasting warmed us up and it was loads of fun creating a lasting memory for our whole tour group.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
M7891ahmarkh
Sep 28, 2023
Amazing Whiskey and Poitin Tour - An excellent Whiskey and Distillery tour by Aoife at Micil. We have toured many distilleries over the years in Scotland and Ireland and this was up there with the very best. Very interesting history of Whiskey and Poitin excellent knowledge by our local guide and all helped along by generous tastings as part of the talk as opposed to at the end. We called back again a couple of days later to buy Poitin and Whiskey and met with one of the owners who was happy to pass on local tourist tips.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Softballmom169
Aug 17, 2023
Excellent small distillery tour! - Highly recommend the Micil Distillery tour! Aoife was a wonderful guide, sharing tons of knowledge and history about distilling and the local area, as well as entertaining stories. We learned about the making and history of poitin, whiskey, and even gin and Irish cream. Also learned a bit about the history, traditions, and people of Connemara. Under 18 welcome to attend, but not taste. This is currently the second smallest distillery in Ireland, but they are growing fast with plans to expand. They even offer the opportunity (for a price) to buy your own cask of whiskey. This is then aged at the distillery and then bottled in bottles with your own label. The distillery is actually in the back room of the Galway Bay Brewery Pub (which is also great). I highly recommend adding this little-known gem to your itinerary in Galway and the Connemara area!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
560tracyl
Aug 10, 2023
Small, but Mighty! - We were told by a family member that this small distillery was well worth a visit and we were not disappointed. We learned so much from Eva who was passionate about Micil. The tasting of the various Micil spirits was delightful and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. If you are interested in a smaller, more personalized distillery tour, this is for you.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
21eva
Jul 1, 2023
Great whiskey experience - Tom was great host and such an interesting tour about the family business making whiskey. You don’t have to like whiskey to try a few samples!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Victoriaar5068ih
Sep 11, 2025
Worth the trip! - This was a fun experience, and a great way to learn about Galway’s only distillery. We were greeted with a gin and tonic, an extremely tasty one, and then our guide dove into the history of gin making, whiskey, and poitin. The lesson was fascinating and interactive, she passed out examples of the ingredients for us to touch and smell to really understand what goes into the spirits. The history of the company is also very impressive and befitting of the Irish culture. Our guide was funny and quick witted as well which made the experience all the more enjoyable. The experience had about 14 people and it never felt too crowded or hard to hear the guide.
A few things to note. The building was a little hard to find (granted it was chucking down rain as we were on the street so we were stressed to find the entrance). It’s a blue bar, you walk through to the back and upstairs.
This is not so much of a tour as it is a tasting and a history lesson, I wish there was more to see of the actual distilling process but I think they just have a small facility for now and it’s probably not easily accessible for the public.
Lastly - if you are coming from Galway center take a cab or the bus, it’s a long walk and in the Irish weather you can get caught in the rain and wind a dozen times.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Lucmuller2016
Aug 9, 2023
2nd smallest Whisky distillery in Ireland...but a quality whiskey made with passion. - MICIL is no more the smallest Irish Whiskey distillery. Hurray !!! It became recently the second smallest. And this makes MICIL still a nice little place to visit. We first had lunch at the pub (very good fish and ships) and visited the whisky distillery at the back of the pub. Very pedagogic and full of nice historical stories. Traditional tasting at the end of the visit. The whiskey is made with passion and is of good quality...to me. A place to visit for sure.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Q5886xkj_rgs
Sep 20, 2025
Disappointing sales event ... - The history of the poitin was far too superficial, all details about the whiskey and the production were too tailored to the Micil distillery. The production process came up short, the small distillation plant could not be seen up close and it was not explained in detail.
Unfortunately, instead of a tour of a distillery (as is usual in other distilleries, and as we could also see from the information on their Website), we only expected a pure sales event.
We strongly recommend that you rewrite your website to reality - e.g. with the title "sales event") and only offer a tour of a distillery if you have something to show for it!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
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