History
The area around the distillery has a long tradition with distillation. According to one story, as far back as 1276, an early settler called Sir Robert Savage of Ards fortified his troops with “a mighty drop of acqua vitae”. In 1608, a licence was granted to Sir Thomas Phillips by King James I to distil whiskey. The Bushmills Old Distillery Company itself was not established until 1784 by Hugh Anderson. Since then, it has undergone tumultuous times to become one of the most popular Irish whiskeys on the market.