02/09/2017
Work starts on our new distillery on the banks of the Blackwater river this October and of course we will bring you updates, photos and videos are the project unfolds.
But let’s start with something of a mood setter.
Here in the Blackwater valley, autumn has started to nibble at the trees. So in the last warm light of August we took to the water to bring you a flavour of our area. For those who don’t know where we are, the Blackwater Valley is in County Waterford, on the South coast of Ireland.
It’s a rather over-looked part of the country, but that wasn’t always the case. The lands around Youghal, where the mighty Blackwater enters the sea were granted to Walter Raleigh after the Desmond rebellion in 1579. Some 42,000 acres of some of the finest land in the country basically stretching from Lismore to Youghal.
So it was quite the place to live and the great houses along the river bear testimony to that.
Most of the great houses in the valley had their own landing strips, as before we had roads the tea, coffee and spices landed in Waterford port were carried up river first by sail, then by paddle steamer.
It’s a very Anglo-Irish part of the world, with cottages, modern housing and old estates clinging to the river as it widens into the sea.
But it’s home and as the buidling gets under way and the blog posts gather steam, you’ll get to know this very special part of Ireland. Our home in West Waterford.
