Surveyed
Joe McGirr came home to Fermanagh after a decade at Glenmorangie and, in 2016, opened the first working distillery in Enniskillen in well over a century, on the shore of Lower Lough Erne. Boatyard is a family affair: his sister Teresa manages the distillery, his brother Brian grows the bog myrtle that goes into the gin on the family farm, another sister writes the verse on the labels. The gin and vodka are made and bottled here by the water, and the distillery runs tours and a shop. It is the rare small distillery where the botanicals, the still and the family are all in one place — an actual Fermanagh product, not a label applied to bought-in spirit.