Silkie Irish Whiskey

Silkie Irish Whiskey is the flagship expression of Sliabh Liag Distillers, a bold modern brand rooted in Donegal’s storherbal and smoky heritage. Inspired by the myth of the “silkie” seals—creatures who shed their aquatic forms to walk among humans—Silkie seeks to bridge folklore and flavour, capturing a sense of coastal mystique and maritime drift in every bottle. The core Silkie blend combines double-distilled and triple-distilled single malts, soft grain whiskey, and a touch of peated malt, creating a whiskey that is both elegant and evocative of Donegal’s windswept coast.

Sliabh Liag Distillers was founded by James and Moira Doherty, who left Hong Kong in 2014 to reconnect with James’s ancestral whiskey roots in northwest Ireland.
They revived the legacy of distilling in Donegal—a region whose licensed whiskey tradition had largely disappeared since the mid-19th century.

The company’s new Ardara Distillery, opened in 2022, marks the return of legal whiskey production to Donegal after nearly two centuries.
Built with sustainability in mind, Ardara has a projected output capacity of up to 500,000 litres of pure alcohol.
While initial Silkie releases have used sourced whiskey (from Great Northern Distillery) to allow time for maturation on site, the Dohertys aim to produce mostly single malt and pot still spirits in the future, with a strong emphasis on smoky character, local peat, and regional terroir.
Sliabh Liag also places importance on legacy: James’s grandfather reportedly made peated whiskey in Kilcar, and the Silkie project is as much a reclamation of family tradition as it is a revival of Donegal’s distilling culture.
Silkie, as a brand, is designed to bring forward the character of Donegal whiskey past into the present — combining smoke, maritime influence, and coastal air into something unique, expressive, and firmly Irish in spirit.

Brand / Producer: Sliabh Liag Distillers, Donegal, Ireland

Style: Blended Irish Whiskey (with malt and grain components, including light peat in some expressions)

ABV: 46%

Core Version / Blend Composition:
 • Combination of double-distilled and triple-distilled single malts plus soft grain whiskey
 • Light peat present in some versions (e.g. “Dark Silkie”)

Maturation / Cask Regime: Uses a variety of casks — bourbon, virgin oak, sherry — depending on variant

Appearance: Natural colour, non-chill filtered