Dublin’s best whiskey bars

If you like a whiskey with your dinner then you’ll be in luck at Hartley’s because this place offers an impressive list of whiskies. Plus if you visit on Thursdays you’ll get 20% off premium spirits all day thanks to ‘Top Shelf Thursdays’. Enjoy bar nibbles such as fried egg crisps with bacon jam or go all in with a Hartley’s burger, a 28-day aged Hereford prime steak or your choice of one of the other delicious mains available.

Situated just off Capel Street, north of the River Liffey, lies the cosy Bar 1661. It’s a warm bar which caters to those who truly enjoy the craft behind some of the best whiskies in the world. According to 1661, it holds a special focus on single “cases, cask strength and independent bottles” of whiskey. The bar holds an expansive whiskey menu, featuring some of the rarest and most daring brews you’ll find on Irish shores. A fantastic feature of Bar 1661 is that you don’t have to break the bank in order to get your hands on some spectacular tipples. A huge recommendation would be the Irishman whiskey, aged in marsala casks, costing around €12 a glass. Further, in 2019, the independent bar won five awards at the Irish Craft Cocktail Awards, including ‘Ireland’s Best Cocktail Bar’. A whiskey cocktail on offer is the ‘Balls Lane’, featuring Jameson black barrel, Redbreast Lustau, Kinsale Mead, butter and Acacia honey.

The Palace Bar is one of the most iconic pubs in Dublin, and for good reason too. While it’s located in Temple Bar, which is traditionally a no-go area for Dubliners, The Palace Bar is one of the oldest and most beloved bars in Dublin. You’re welcomed by the sight of hanging lamps and flowerpots, which adorn stained glass windows outside the Fleet Steet pub. Inside, a Victorian décor allows you to comfortably sink into your seat and enjoy some of the most luxurious whiskies in Dublin.

The Palace Bar serves its own 10- and 12-year-old whiskies, as well as the renowned Middleton Very Rare Whiskey, possibly why the bar’s won the 2021 ‘Icons of whiskey’ award for bar of the year. There’s also a ‘whiskey snug’ upstairs, where staff are exclusively there to guide and suggest to you which whiskey would suit you best. A must visit for locals, ideal for a day out in the company of loved ones.

Where better for local Irish whiskey in Dublin than the Jameson Bar? Jameson whiskey is the world’s biggest selling Irish whiskey and its origins go back to 1780, when an enterprising Scotsman, John Jameson made Dublin his base and founded the distillery that was to bear his name. In 1804 his son, also John, took over at Bow Street and laid the foundations for the international success of the firm by modernising and expanding operations. He in turn was succeeded by John Jameson III, the first of the family to live at Portmarnock.

By the 1880s the Jameson Distillery extended over five acres in Dublin City and employed over 200 men. Whiskey was exported from there all over the world. Irish whiskey at that time was the drink of connoisseurs prepared to pay higher prices for quality products. Today, production has moved to a greenfield site in Midleton, Co. Cork but visitors to Dublin can still call to the Jameson Distillery Bow Street for a tour or a tasting, on the site where it all began in 1780.