EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW
Why Lambay Island?
Lambay Island located just three miles from Dublin, is the largest island off the east coast of Ireland. It is about 2.5 square kilometres in size. Its highest point rises to 127 metres and is a place of priceless beauty. Find out more here.
Lambay is a nature reserve home to a colony of red neck wallabies, a herd of deer, seagulls, grey seals and puffins, natural flora and fauna that live together in perfect harmony. This private island paradise is owned by the Baring family since 1904.
There is a private harbour on the Western shore, and there are a small number of buildings nearby including a bothy, coastguard cottages and a real tennis court. Lambay has a natural water source – called Trinity well Water and offers the perfect maritime conditions for Lambay Whiskey cask maturation.
Why the Camus connection?
The House of Camus has joined the Baring family in partnering on this exciting new venture. Moved by the island’s beautiful, pristine surroundings, the Camus and Baring families share a common bond for the love of nature, entrepreneurship and L’art de Vivre. Maison Camus having already experienced the effect of island maturation with their cognac Ile De Ré, bringing this ethos of island maturation into the Irish Whiskey category.
Combining the respected art of Irish whiskey making with the century-old blending and maturation skills of Camus, Lambay Whiskey has direct access to some of the finest cognac casks in the world while also benefiting from the mastery of five generations of blending expertise under the watchful eye of Master Blender Yonael Bernard, his partnership ensures a unique product that captures to perfection the nuances of this natural paradise where the idea is born. It is a nature reserve and place of intrigue and has long had an air of inaccessible mystery. When WB Yeats visited the island in the 1880s, he compared the experience of landing on a remote South Seas island for the first time.
Where can I buy Lambay Whiskey?
We recommend you go into our FIND US section and on the map type in your country place of interest and our nearest retailer will pop up!
If you then need further help, we are happy to assist you. Email us: info@lambaywhiskey.com
How do I get to Lambay Island?
While we are very welcoming and love to have visitors, Lambay is a privately-owned island and therefore not open to the general public. As it states on our bottle, access to us is by invitation only. However, we have developed a whiskey tourism experience for private groups and details can be booked here for 2021: www.whiskeyisland.ie/private-
Sea Tours runs two passenger trips daily; to Lambay Island & Rockabill Lighthouse (2 Hour & 30 mins) and Lambay Island Walking Tour (4 Hours) & 30 mins. The trips are run by local RNLI crewman Eoin Grimes. The boat can carry 12 passengers and 3 crew members, is fully insured and carries the required P3 license from the Department of Transport. For more information on the trips via Skerries tours: www.skerriesseatours.ie
Is there a Distillery on Lambay?
We do not have a distillery on Lambay Island yet, BUT we do have a bonded maturation warehouse. This warehouse is the called the Sea Cask Room and exposes our Single Malt casks to the unique maritime environment on the island. This finishing period on the island is purely for our Lambay Single Malt and Malts while the Lambay Small Batch Blend has a cognac cask finish made at the distillery.
Lambay Island is also home to its own Trinity Well volcanic water. This water is categorized as water of volcanic origin or deriving its heat and chemical activity from volcanic sources or volcanism. We use this pure water at bottling stage to craft our whiskey’s.
What age are Lambay Whiskeys?
Age statement is not our priority for Lambay. While we respect and adhere to the standards and regulations around the category of Irish Whiskey, – by law all whiskey must spend a minimum of 3 yrs. in the cask. Lambay Whiskey Small Batch Blend is a minimum of 4 yrs. old and the Single Malt holds more of a craft aspect as each year we will lay stocks down and this whiskey starts at a minimum of 5 years old and will vary in age as we allow casks to mature on Lambay Island.The combination between the ancestral know how of distilling in Ireland and the expertise of Maison Camus in blending, maturation and finishing is what gives our products their uniqueness and specificity.
Once upon a most unusual island, two entrepreneurial spirits from two very old families decided to form a unique partnership. Together, they’d make a whiskey. But not just any whiskey – their whiskey would be one of dynasty and devilment, of rarity and refinement, unique tasting and masterfully crafted.
Their idea was to create an innovative Irish whiskey inspired by the island of Lambay, ancestral home of Alexander Baring, and finished with the techniques and expertise of Maison Camus, ancestral home of Camus Cognac.