Historic Mayo building to get new lease of life with whiskey visitor centre

Whiskey is set to flow again in the heart of Westport as a new whiskey bonding venture, Westport Whiskey Bonders, prepares to breathe life into the old school house and former Dunnes Stores building on Castlebar Street.

“Westport is one of the homes of Grace O’Malley and in a way we’re bringing the whiskey home. We spent the last number of years trying to find a building that would work and the opportunity came up for that building and the project fitted it,” Stephen Cope, co-founder and managing director of Grace O’Malley Spirits tells The Mayo News. 

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“We're going to open up on a bonded license and do some retail. We're going to start doing tastings and different experiences, and then ultimately open up a visitor centre model after about two years.”

The Westport Whiskey Bonders plans dovetail with significant investment into Westport and Louisburgh through a Fáilte Ireland masterplan around the pirate queen.

The team, which includes Ballina's Connacht Distillery CEO David Stapleton, is aiming to officially open their whiskey bonding facility in April 2026, bringing a new cultural and commercial offering to the area.

Before then, however, they’re hoping to bring the spirit of the project to life with pop-up events this Christmas. 

A cooper crafting a cask 

The site itself already holds retail zoning and had an off-license in place previously under Dunnes Stores. The new team is in the process of transferring that license to their name in preparation for the upcoming retail activity.

Bringing whiskey back to Westport is more than just a business plan—it’s a nod to history. “There was a distillery here in the mid-1800s called Livingstone Distillery,” the Ballina-native explained. “It was located on Distillery Road, just about 100 yards from where we’ll be. So in many ways, we’re bringing whiskey back to the town.”

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Since Dunnes Stores vacated the building in 2016, it has been used intermittently over the years as an art gallery and a venue for the Westival arts and music festival.

The historic structure was built in 1824 and was home to the CBS right up until the early 1960s. The National Built Heritage Service explains it was “'erected through the zeal of the Most Reverend Oliver Kelly DD [1777-1834] representing an important component of the early nineteenth-century built heritage of Westport.” 

The First year class Westport CBS 1963/64 [Credit: Tony Reidy]

The project doesn’t stop at whiskey sales. Once operational, the facility aims to offer unique whiskey bonding experiences, allowing visitors to disgorge their own whiskey from the barrel.

As anticipation builds, locals and visitors alike can look forward to a warm, spirited addition to Westport’s cultural landscape—just in time for the holidays and with a firm eye on the town’s rich distilling heritage.