Old Bushmills distillery based in Bushmills, Northern Ireland is one of the oldest Irish whiskey distillers in history. Better known just as Bushmills Whiskey is has been producing whiskey for over 400 years, but like every distillery seemingly in the world has had its highs and lows and we are going to explore the rich history of one of the finest Irish whiskeys in the world. 

The company of Old Bushmills was not founded until 1784, the region and land where the original distillery sat, has a long history of whiskey production and distilling with the land been granted a royal licence to distill and produce whiskey back in 1608 which form part of Bushmills history. 

Hugh Anderson was the man to found the Old Bushmills company in 1784, Like every famous distillery, they suffered lean years at Bushmills.With closures a number of times with such years as 1802 and 1822 having no official record of production. In 1860, Belfast spirit merchants of Patrick Corrigan and James McColgan bought the distillery. 

In 1885, disaster struck as a fire broke out at the distillery, pretty much burned down everything, this was at time when whiskey sales in US were soaring. So Bushmills rapidly rebuilt to supply the demand. 5 years later Bushmills had acquired a steamship they operated to export the whiskey across the atlantic, The SS Bushmills. The steamship made port at place like Philadelphia and  New York In the USA before continuing its voyage to Singapore, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Yokohama. 

In the early 20th century the US market was very important to Bushmills along with other irish distiller as a export. As with many distillers, once the prohibition era was enforced in America it was a crushing blow to whiskey export. Bushmills director at the time Wilson Boyd predicted the end of prohibition and made sure to have a large stock ready for export to states once it did. 

From now on most of major points was when the distillery switched between owners, after the second world war Isaac Wolfson bought it, 1972 was purchased by Irish Distillers group which was quite a significant purchase as at time they had complete monopoly on Irish whiskey production industry. In 1988 they sold up to a french liquor group, 2005 was a major sale to Diego group that bought Bushmills for £200 million, and launched a large marketing campaign with the aim to regian a market share for Bushmills. 

Diego traded Bushmills to Proximo Spirits to buy out a 50% share of Don Julio Tequila that they required to own that brand. Back 2008, Northern Ireland's currency mint issued new bank notes with a image of Bushmills distillery replacing a image of Belfast University building, which was quite the mark of history for Bushmills. 

In 2023 Bushmills opened a second distillery for the first time in its history, The Causeway Distillery.