Kilbeggan: Just a wee drop of the hard stuff

JAN WALKER tours an old distillery where men went to desperate lengths to hide booze.

Through welcoming archway is a courtyard where late-afternoon light dapples clean, whitewashed walls, and a sense of cool peace reigns over stone buildings.

It could be a Spanish village or a farmhouse in rural Tuscany. In fact, it is Locke's Distillery Museum in Kilbeggan, County Westmeath. It is a must for New Zealanders visiting southern Ireland, especially those fond of a drop of whiskey.

From the moment I entered the museum, named after John Locke, who took over the distillery in 1843, I could sense the past and the workers whose toil is imprinted in the stones.

The men bathed naked in the brewing vats before the water got too hot, drying themselves on their shirts. Sweating figures shovelled grain in the mash tuns, standing in holes they'd dug for themselves through the caked top, throwing up grain which had the consistency of wet turf, straining with the effort.

I imagined the farmers, their horses and carts stretched up the hill awaiting the spent grains which had the consistency of soft brown porridge and which, mixed with turnips or potatoes, fed many a cow and pig.

What a sight to see Paddy Barry, who worked at the millstones, covered from head to foot in ground grains and, according to Mrs Nannery (who brought in her washing for drying in the the malting house) looking like a snowman.

Almost within earshot from another time comes the chip-chip of the mill pick, used by the man whose job it was to re-roughen the millstones each time 20 tonnes of grain had passed through them.

Stand, eyes closed, by the fully restored steam-engine and you can hear the thunk-clunk-thunk rhythm of gleaming black metal, pipes, wheels and cogs working to bring to life the process by which the golden John Locke's whiskey was made.

The process depended on the precious water of the River Brosna. The water began the cycle, with the waterwheel and its perpetual scoop and splash, turning hour after hour. The river cooled the worts (sugary water and grain), as it flowed through 200m of copper pipe laid on the riverbed, before the embryonic whiskey continued its journey.

Hardly a sombre place, the museum is full of stories - of how drink was hidden in every nook and cranny, even up the drainpipes.

Many men who drank in the bar up town needed only a drink of water to reactivate their happy state because of the amount of first shot (clear, strong alcohol) they had consumed.

It must have been part of the working day to outwit the customs and excise men, one of whom had a permanent office at the distillery. He probably thought that the angel's share was nothing compared to the grog that seemed to disappear with the fairies from under his nose.

* Locke's Distillery Museum, Kilbeggan, County Westmeath, Ireland, is open seven days a week. Guided tours take 40 minutes. Contact, ph (00353) 506 32134.