November 2014

Adventure

That’s where we are now, off to work on a dream some years in the making. I would like to thank all of you for the challenge...

December 2014

Serendipity

It feels good to be “home” and if you believe in serendipity then try this on for size. Moira and I moved the family to our "home" in Ireland...

February 15

Rhythm

I have always needed a cause, to make a difference and make things better than when I found them.  For much of my career I have managed to find that...

November 2015

Charity

It is quite astonishing how much money local charities can generate. This small rural community in what the government would no doubt class as a “disadvantaged” area generates more than €20,000...

January 2016

Planning

Well the New Year has started with a splish splosh, we seem to have had more rain this year than in the last ten tears and there has been plenty of flooding in the midlands and my heart goes out to the poor souls in Athlone...

January 2016

Part A – Information

We were working on the launch of The Silkie this week which has filled every waking moment to get everything done. It’s exciting, nerve racking and game changing for us so we will be giving it our all, just hope we have enough whiskey...

JANUARY 2016

Part B – The Silkie

That’s was some night, lessons to be learned for sure but great night...

April 2016

Submission

Excited and relieved that the plans have been submitted. Cornerstone have done us proud and the building looks beautiful. It is amazing...

JUNE 2016

Released

Well she is free to beguile now. The first Silkie’s have been released onto the Irish market and we are being very clear that this is a blend of whiskies and an independent bottling...

July 2016

Bittersweet

A weekend of very mixed emotions.

We were delighted that Donegal County Council issued their decision to GRANT planning permission for the Sliabh Liag Distillery...

September 2016

Déjà vu

Well that was a palaver. An Taisce appealed Donegal County Councils planning grant as we all expected they would. A desire to preserve the area in aspic is laudable but doing so in a way that weakens the community cant be right...

JUNE 2017

Dom and John

Dom and John...

August 17

From Lola to Méabh

Perhaps a better heading for this one would be from Lola to Meabh – a most unexpected journey...

August 2017

Taste of Donegal

OMG what a day. Dougy (Hibernian bars) who made the bar showed me a sketch weeks ago and said don’t worry James & Moira, I’ll build you a beautiful bar you just have to trust me...

OCTOBER 2017

An Dúlamán

We said from the beginning that we would always launch locally first and that’s just what we have done...

February 2018

Getting Out There

A fewer more distribution bridgeheads being forged...

May 2018

Hong Kong

Thoughts at the Big Buddha...

July 2018

Momentum

Moments matter. I remember hearing Brian Noble the renowned rugby league coach talking about an individual being accountable and delivering "in the moment" and how this has a galvanising effect on the team that yields another moment and another and with each subsequent moment you start to recognise momentum.

September 2018

Wholehearted

It’s been a roller coaster of a summer that has culminated with us making the difficult but correct decision to depart Carrick and relocated the whole operation to Ardara, the pretty market town of festivals just a 18 minutes away.

APRIL 2019

Planning Submitted for Ardara

And breathe . . .
It has been an exciting few days finalizing the designs for the new distillery in Ardara...

SEPTEMBER 2019

The Tease

It has been a strange day of excitement, butterflys and being secretive. We’ve been setting up at Taste of Donegal which is always fun and you can feel the excitement build as you set up the stand and catch up with the great and the good of the Donegal food and drink scene...

OCTOBER 2019

The Big Bluff

We secured planning in July 2015, then won our appeal to An Bord Pleanala in January 2016 and thought we could quickly move on with the distillery build. We did not imagine that the narrow self-interest that was holding us and the parish community of Glencolmcille to ransom would elect to litigate...

NOVEMBER 2019

Whiskey Live

We always enjoy whiskey live, a unique opportunity to reconnect with the community of distillers, blenders, ambassadors and most important whiskey drinkers...

DECEMBER 2019

New Ardara Distillery Gets The Green Light

Sliabh Liag Distillers receive sign off on planning permission

DECEMBER 2019

Getting Started

The first steps to distilling in Ardara started today with the diggers rolling into the site to put in place the potential flood mitigation works...

FEBRUARY 2020

Believe (Master Distiller)

Confidence is a funny thing and inner resilience probably the most under-emphasised quality that the entrepreneur needs to survive the slings and petty barbs flung by the nay-sayers and know-it-alls (who know little as it turns out)...

March 2020

It’s an ill wind – Pandemic pt 1

As with just about every distiller in the country we were off to Prowein in Dusseldorf with a full set of meetings arranged and a few catch ups with industry buddies but it is all off. Everything cancelled. The pandemic impact is getting very real and the levels of uncertainty are going through the roof...

May 2020

We aren’t waiting (for New Normal)

It’s a strange time for sure and the only thing that is clear is that the political classes are floundering - in a world of soundbites and faux certainty where no one ever wants to deliver bad news- the idea that we can have certainty at the time of this pandemic seems pretty alien to me...

June 2020

Finding our voice

About a year ago we first started talking about crowdfunding as a route and focused on Crowdcube as the partner. Their enthusiasm for our distinctive story and understanding of their investor group is probably what convinced us that fundraising in a pandemic was viable...

July 2020

Irish Whiskey

When came we home to reclaim the distilling heritage of Donegal the dream seemed like a long way off, but today our Grandads and most certainly Poppa would be very proud this evening. After 2 long weeks a concerted team effort, an immense amount of hard work and some help from Seamus and Edward at Football Special and David Stapleton at Connacht Whiskey we have distilled the first legal whiskey in Donegal since 1841.

August 2020

Cask Strength Crusade

We distil and blend whiskeys the way we like them and you will know by now that soft hard spirits is our thing. I’m a mood drinker and whether it’s a blend or a malt for pleasure it always has ice, I’ve even been known to add a mixer (but don’t tell anyone). Maybe is a hangover from our time in Zimbabwe and Malawi.

SEPTEMBER 2020

Turning a Sod

With our picturesque 10 acre site by the banks of the Owentocker river now fully prepared, work proper has commenced on the new distilling building. Quite literally, a landmark occasion!

OCTOBER 2020

Well that was a blast

The strategy and execution for raising the money to reclaim the distilling heritage of Donegal is one I have drawn up and refined whenever we hit a significant mile stone. It has meant for multiple fundraising rounds and a really strong group of backers but we always wanted to go down the crowd funding route – not least because it brings a fantastic troupe of ambassadors and supporters who might otherwise not had the chance to own a piece of their own distillery...

January 2020

Lockdown revisited – Pandemic pt 3

Noooooooooooo, not again, not another delay. We really don’t need this but getting control of this damned virus spread is the priority. The release of lock down at Christmas looked populist and high risk. And so it has proved. Another spike in cases and construction is closed down.

March 2021

Tetris (USA revisited)

The opening up of the USA is remarkable. A year ago we met Henry and by July we were shipping to him and America has taken to our Silkies...

April 2021

Its getting very real

View the video here...

April 2021

OMG – SFWSC

I’m not one for unicorns though our granddaughter Lola would not thank me for saying it. That said I have watched entries being prepared for competitions and known that great store was put on them. I have felt proud when they have been won, been part of the collective euphoria and sense of accomplishment when the press release was circulated...

August 2021

Bill Murray with Moira and James

A late call from our home golf course of Narin and Portnoo, now beautifully redesigned by Gill Hanse informed us that Bill Murray was coming to play the course and could we do a whiskey and gin tasting for him...

October 2021

Were off – the first run of the wash still

We had the family over, mum, Cathal, Sean, Aggie and we toasted the first cook, then the fermenter but today we ran the wash still, a momentous day 

NOVEMBER 2021

Ardara Distillery.
A year of living gratefully

It always amazes me that when you get into the final stretch of anything how it flies in and suddenly you are there and the whirlwind subsides...

December 2021

Midnight Silkie – The Collection is complete

Midnight Silkie – The Collection is complete

December 2021

The Year of Living Gratefully

It always amazes me that when you get into the final stretch of anything how it flies in and suddenly you are there and the whirlwind subsides. The build of the Ardara Distillery has felt no different...

June 2022

We are crowdfunding (again)

Due to the success of our last crowdfunding round and with the performance of our brands outstripping category growth rates, our new distillery producing exceptional new-make, heavily peated spirit and the forecast sales of Irish whiskey continuing to look exceptionally strong, the time has come for us to once again give our followers an opportunity to become a shareholder in Sliabh Liag Distillers...

JULY 2022

Open for Tours

We have almost 500 casks laid down (or standing up if truth be told as most of them are palletised) and yet we are repeatedly asked if the distillery is “open” and sometimes is it “working” so while we have been busy beavering away perfecting the recipes, refining the processes and getting rather too intimate with the mill room – we have also been equipping what was to be our offices in the reception area into a make shift shop and visitor experience.

September 2022

Donegal Barley

One of the joys of bringing back distilling to Donegal is that we are helping to bring opportunities to others. For many years the arable farmers of Donegal have been told that wither there was no market or they couldn’t grow malting barley of the right quality.

September 2022

Origin Green – Gold membership (again)

We’re proud to announce that we have obtained Origin Green Gold Member status from Bord Bia for the second year in a row.

December 2022

Chair of the IWA

Chair of the IWA

December 2022

An honour I never thought I would have

William (Lavelle) thank you and to John (Quinn) thank you for navigating the IWA through the recent times. I’m sure when you took on the Chair you didn’t envisage having to navigate a long term pandemic, a war, a shortage of glass/cardboard/ label/ Energy and massive inflationary pressures … and I know you didn’t start any of this … but it did happen on your watch …

February 2023

A poitín manifesto

We have been doing lots of work as an industry on the Pot Still technical file about which there is broad agreement but for what its worth here are my musings on Poitin...

February 2023

Memories of Asia

Before we set off on the adventure that has become our lives in Sliabh Liag (Christmas 2014) we had set off in September 2012 on another adventure we packed up our lives in Woking and took our three younger children on a huge adventure to live on the other side of the world in Hong Kong and what an adventure it was.

March 2023

New York Whiskey Fest

New York Whiskey Fest...

April 2023

Australia and New Zealand

June 2023

Mum

Mum was immensely proud of the distillery and its connection to her Dad Frank Carr...