Kilbeggan Distillery

Early records show that MacManus's still held 232 gallons.^1,2,3 The Codd family took over in 1798, and John Locke took over in 1843, when the site became Locke's Distillery.^1,3,4 In 1866 the steam boiler broke and the Lockes could not afford a new one, so the townspeople paid for a replacement.^8,9 In 1878 fire destroyed part of the distillery, and townspeople broke down the warehouse doors to roll several thousand casks into the street.^2,8,9 A steam engine built in Glasgow was added in 1880, so the distillery could keep working when the river was low.^3,9,10

Distilling stopped in 1924, and the firm sold off its aged whiskey until production resumed in 1931.^2,9 A rise in the tax on spirits forced its stills to shut down in 1953, and the business closed in 1957.^1,2,3 In 1963 a German buyer sold off the remaining whiskey and turned the distillery into a pigsty.^2,9 Powerscreen, a firm selling Volvo loading shovels, bought it in 1969; in the early 1970s its stills and worms, the coiled pipes that cooled vapour, went for scrap.^8,9

In 1982 townspeople formed the Kilbeggan Preservation and Development Association, which restored the distillery and reopened it as a museum around 1984.^2,3,9 In 1983, with the help of the Keoghan brothers and timber donated from local mills, the waterwheel turned for the first time in nearly thirty years.² Cooley Distillery bought the distillery and its licence in 1988, at first to store ageing casks.^1,5,9