About Us
The Boatyard Distillery is an award winning farm-to-bottle distillery located on the banks of Lough Erne in north west Ireland. Only the best organic ingredients have been chosen for each of our products with the terroir of the land at the forefront of each new spirit. Our gin botanical, Sweet Gale, is foraged from the family bog and the wheat used for our vodka can be traced from the bottle back to the very field it came from.
Founder, Joe McGirr, has utilised his background in spirits and whisky knowledge to build his dream of the first legal distillery in Fermanagh in over 130 years. Joe’s dream to build a distillery in the place in which he grew up was inspired by his family’s rich farming history - from grandad Brian who was a ploughing contractor to father Michael who was a dairy and beef farmer. It’s great to now be able to give something back to the land; all of our spent grain from our spirits go back to the land and the cows and we claim the happiest cows in Ireland!
“Agronomy of the land is important to us at Boatyard, it allow us to
capture the character of Fermanagh in our spirits”.
– Joe McGirr, Founder of The Boatyard Distillery
New Commercial Director
Declan McGurk occupies the role of Commercial Director responsible for the global development of The Boatyard Distillery whilst also strengthening its local base and adding his expertise to liquid innovation.
Declan is very much known as an industry legend in the bar trade having enjoyed a sparkling seven-year tenure at the world-renowned Savoy Hotel. Under his stewardship, the American Bar was awarded World’s Best Bar in 2017 by Worlds 50 Best Bars.
Declan also achieved personal recognition as he was crowned Best Bar Manager in the UK at the 2019 Class Bar Awards. Declan has strong ties with our beautiful County Fermanagh, with his parents living only a few miles from the distillery and some of his family having worked with the McGirr family on the farm in years gone by. His grandfather, Eddie Duffy, was also a regional hero for contributing to the local Traditional Irish Music scene, being the namesake along with Mick Hoy at the Derrygonnelly festival.
