'This is where the magic happens': Discover some of Clonakilty's tastiest creations
Clonakilty Distillery CEO Michael Scully.
Standing at the edge of Galley Head overlooking the Atlantic, it’s easy to get swept up in the story of Clonakilty Distillery and the Scully family. The Scullys have farmed land on the picturesque peninsula for generations – over 320 years, in fact – and I met Michael Scully on a stunningly sunny day to visit the distillery’s barley fields that sit on the family farm, where casks of their uisce bheatha mature in the Atlantic breeze.
The whiskey is stored in casks ina warehouse on the farm at Dunowen and Michael says the unique location is crucial to both the story and taste of their products.
“The fact that the casks are maturing here by the ocean, that will impart a lot of flavours to them over time,” he says as he shows us around their various casks of whiskey. He says the salty sea air and water gives their raw material, barley, a distinctive flavour too.
He says making a great whiskey is, surprisingly, like baking a cake and it all comes down to the materials you’re working with.
“This is where the magic happens. What the lads are doing inside the distillery is great. We always say if you start with a bad spirit, you haven’t a hope of making it good. But if you start with a really good spirit then well, you have a chance to make it great. It's like baking a cake. If the ingredients aren’t good at the start you'll never make a good cake.”
At Clonakilty Distillery, Michael says they start their process with “basically high quality poitín” as the first step produces a beverage with 83% alcohol but the secret to their flavours, ultimately, is in the casks.
“We use all different types of casks and that's where the magic is,” he says, noting the combination of instinct and science in the making of whiskey.
“People spend their whole lives trying to master it and it is fascinating. But there's a science to it as well,” he says.
Given the popularity of the brand in Ireland and abroad, it’s surprising to realise they have only been making whiskey since 2019 and it was an urge to experiment with the family’s farm’s output that put Michael on the track to becoming a distiller.
“We have a dairy farm here and I just wanted to do something different. I started off saying ‘maybe we can do something with the milk to make alcohol’. I went up to UCC and I spent about a year up there trying to do different things and see what I could make and really got nowhere, but it certainly got me interested in that space. And then I figured out that there’s really good story in whiskey.”
Of course, the milk from their dairy cows, which are still on the farm beside the warehouse full of casks, goes into some of their creations. “Our milk does go into whey alcohol. Our gin and our vodka come from our milk."
Michael grew up on Galley Head and the location is at the heart of the distillery – whales visit the area each year and are so common one regular humpback whale is named Boomerang by the locals, given his tendency to keep coming back. As such a familiar sight from his family home, Michael says it was a natural choice as a mascot for Clonakilty Distillery – their logo on bottles is of a whale’s tail.
We travel from Galley Head to the heart of Clonakilty, where the knowledgable Chloe gives us an in-depth tour of the distillery. We learn more about the Scully family and their history at Dunowen as well as the practicalities of the whiskey-making process.
After the tour, we moved next door to the Whale’s Tail restaurant for a delicious dinner. On a thriving Saturday evening I enjoy a marinated chicken salad starter, followed by Union Hall hake with prawns and crisped baby potatoes and bacon, while my mother is served a fillet of steak cooked to her specification. It's a hearty feed and a welcome chance to digest the days of sun, whiskey and history.
We return to our base – the Celtic Ross hotel in Rosscarbery. The hotel is the perfect location as it is a short drive to Clonakilty and has easy access to other popular West Cork areas. On its doorstep too is the Warren Beach, a sandy strand that featured in many a Corkonian’s childhood summers and the town of Rosscarberry is picturesque and a worthy stopping point itself.
After learning so much about the whale’s part in Clonakilty Distillery’s story, it's only natural to go searching for them the next morning. I join Atlantic Whale and Wildlife Tours from Courtmacsherry pier for a four-hour tour of the harbour to catch a glimpse of the area’s cetacean visitors. While we see no whales around that morning, we are delighted to be joined by scores of dolphins, many of whom swim beside the boat, leaping and weaving in a display that is entirely for our enjoyment.
An appetite solidly worked up after our excursion, there is no better place to stop before hitting the road home than the Clonakilty Black Pudding Visitor Centre, where we learn about the history of arguably the town’s most famous export.
At the end of the tour, which includes a walk through a reconstructed Clonakilty throughout the decades, we enjoy a fry featuring its hero products: Clonakilty sausages, black and white pudding, rashers and even a taste of their vegetarian pudding alternative. There’s nothing like getting a full Irish from the home of some of its best ingredients.
