The Cashel Palace hotel, a 1732 palace in Tipperary, Ireland, bottles its own €125 whiskey

At the foot of the Rock of Cashel, in County Tipperary, the five-star Cashel Palace hotel now has its own whiskey, launched in February 2026 and sold at 125 euros a bottle. The barley comes from the Coolmore fields, the distilling from a neighbouring craft producer, and the bottle never leaves Cashel and its surroundings. A good excuse to discover a former archbishop’s palace from 1732, reopened in 2022 with a Michelin-starred restaurant.

☰Contents

1. Coolmore barley, three years in sherry casks
2. Where to taste the 125-euro bottle
3. An archbishop’s palace from 1732
4. 42 rooms facing the Rock of Cashel
5. The Bishop’s Buttery, starred three years running
6. A spa with a 17-metre pool

Coolmore barley, three years in sherry casks

It is the hotel’s second spirit, after 1732 Cashel Palace Gin, flavoured with mulberries as a nod to the mulberry trees planted in the garden in 1702. For the whiskey, the barley was grown by Coolmore Farms on the land surrounding the Rock of Cashel, then distilled and aged by Tipperary Boutique Distillery, a small family-run distillery headed by Jennifer Nickerson.

The result is a three-year-old Irish Pot Still, the Irish style that blends malted and unmalted barley, aged in first-fill Oloroso sherry casks. It has a deep amber colour, and the house promises notes of dried fruit, dark chocolate, fig, caramel and warm spices. “From field to glass, every step has been guided by the desire to create something authentic and deeply connected to Tipperary,” says Adriaan Bartel, the hotel’s general manager.

Where to taste the 125-euro bottle

The whiskey is served and sold only at the hotel and at its three sister venues: Mikey Ryan’s Bar & Kitchen, a neighbouring bistro on Main Street, Donoghue’s pub, in Cashel, and Sadler’s Restaurant & Bar, in Fethard, twenty minutes away by car. To go further, the hotel arranges a tour and tasting at the distillery, which has just four copper stills, the largest holding 1,000 litres.

An archbishop’s palace from 1732

Cashel Palace was built between 1730 and 1732 for Archbishop Theophilus Bolton, to plans by Sir Edward Lovett Pearce, later the architect of the Parliament House in Dublin. Red-brick façade, limestone rear, red pine staircase: the Palladian house has kept its original panelling. Another archbishop, Arthur Price, was Arthur Guinness’s godfather: his bequest of 100 pounds helped found the famous brewery, hence the Guinness Bar in the cellars.

Bought by the Magnier family, owners of the Coolmore stud, the house was restored from 2017 and reopened on 1 March 2022 as a five-star hotel.

42 rooms facing the Rock of Cashel

The hotel has 42 rooms, including eight suites, spread across the main house, a new garden wing and the former outbuildings along the drive. Several look out over the Rock of Cashel, once the seat of the kings of Munster, which you reach in four minutes along the Bishop’s Walk, a private path. On 21 October 2026, the lowest rate for two, breakfast included, was 395 euros (night of 23 November).

The Bishop’s Buttery, starred three years running

In the former vaulted kitchens, The Bishop’s Buttery held on in 2026 to its Michelin star for the third year running, and the hotel has held two Michelin Keys since 2024. Culinary director Stephen Hayes and chef Stefan McEnteer serve modern Irish cuisine there, as a tasting menu or a table d’hôte menu, Tuesday to Sunday evenings.

A spa with a 17-metre pool

The spa looks out over the gardens, with a 17-metre indoor-outdoor pool, a thermal circuit (sauna, steam room, hot tub), seaweed baths and Bamford and Valmont treatments. To extend your trip to Ireland, see Lough Eske Castle in Donegal, Kinnitty Castle and its renovated wing or the works at Dromoland Castle.