Royal Oak Distillery
Royal Oak Distillery is located at Holloden House, an 18th century estate in Co. Carlow in Ireland’s Ancient East.
Formerly known as Walsh Whiskey Distillery, the facility opened and laid down its first whiskey in 2016.
Walsh Whiskey was founded in 1999 and its flagship whiskey brands, including Writers Tears and The Irishman, are distributed in 40 countries globally. These whiskeys are currently sourced from third party distilleries in Ireland.
In 2019 Illva Saronno, who had a 50% stake in Walsh Whiskey, took full ownership of the distillery, and renamed it “Royal Oak Distillery”.
The distillery operates both Column and Pot stills. Three styles of Irish whiskey are made at Royal Oak – pot still, malt and grain.
Spirit is aged in an array of barrels including: bourbon barrels from Kentucky in the USA; sherry butts from Jerez in Spain; Rum barrels from the Caribbean Island of Saint Lucia, and Marsala wine casks from Illva Saronno’s own Florio Marsala Winery in Sicily off the coast of mainland Italy.
The building of their two maturation houses began in 2017 and when complete they will have a 60,000 barrel capacity.
Royal Oak Distillery released their inaugural range, the Busker series, in 2020.