Hawk's Rock

Type: Distillery

The first whiskey released under the Hawk's Rock name was older than the distillery itself. Garavogue 20 Year Old Single Malt Irish Whiskey arrived under the new name in 2025, but the County Sligo site was commissioned only in 2019. Its inaugural release came from elsewhere.[1][2][3]

Formerly Lough Gill Distillery, the site was renamed by Sazerac in April 2025. Behind that change of identity lies a striking setting: a peninsula on Lough Gill, a forgotten Palladian house and warehouses converted for a new life in whiskey.[1][3][4]

At a glance

From Hazelwood to Hawk's Rock

Water surrounds the estate on three sides. The acquisition account places the distillery on a 100-acre peninsula in Lough Gill, with Hazelwood House and a former warehouse complex among its buildings.[3][4] Rather than starting on an empty site, the project gave an existing place a new purpose.

The history published around the acquisition begins with a discovery in Hazelwood forest: a large warehouse complex hidden behind a forgotten Palladian house. Lough Gill Distillery was founded in 2015, bringing together the historic house and industrial buildings with room for conversion.[3][4]

The warehouses became a single malt distillery, commissioned in 2019 after four years of development.[3] For anyone tracing the origin of a whiskey, that is the crucial date. The business had begun in 2015; the distillery was commissioned four years later.

Story box: A warehouse complex becomes a distillery

What changed under Sazerac

Sazerac bought more than a distillery. Its announcement set out a broader role for the property as a home for its Irish whiskeys Paddy and Michael Collins, alongside continued development of Athrú, the first brand associated with Lough Gill.[3] Before the sale, the owning company was Hazelwood Demesne Limited, identified in the Law Society of Ireland Gazette's report.[4]

These brands have distinct relationships with the site. Athrú belonged to its early story; Paddy and Michael Collins featured in Sazerac's plans for its future.[3] Those plans do not establish that every whiskey bearing those names was distilled at Hazelwood.

The proposed investment covered additional distilling capacity, warehousing, and new production and bottling lines.[3] By the April 2025 renaming, Sazerac said warehouse capacity had tripled since the acquisition.[1] That measures storage expansion, not annual spirit output.

The new name was announced on 23 April 2025.[1] Hawk's Rock marked a new chapter for Lough Gill, not the opening of a second Sligo production site.

A production timeline

From the Hazelwood conversion to the Garavogue launch, these are the key dates.

What Hawk's Rock is known for

The Hazelwood estate, Sazerac's expansion programme and Garavogue give Hawk's Rock its present identity.[1][2][3] Helen Mulholland is its Master Blender, and the inaugural Garavogue 20 was announced as a 20 year old single malt.[2]

Both new names look to the surrounding landscape. Hawk's Rock refers to an outcrop in the Ox Mountains associated with W.B. Yeats. Trade accounts report that it inspired a Yeats play; one identifies it as At the Hawk's Well.[1][5][6] Garavogue takes its name from the river that runs past the distillery, through Sligo town and towards the Atlantic, while the label depicts the Hazelwood House Windmill.[2]

Verdict: Documented. These local references connect the new identity with Sligo and Hazelwood. They do not identify the distillery that originally made the inaugural release.

Garavogue 20 and the origin question

Garavogue 20 Year Old Single Malt Irish Whiskey was announced on 4 June 2025 as Hawk's Rock's inaugural whiskey.[2] It was the first release under the new identity; it was not distilled at the site.

Verdict: Documented. A distillery commissioned in 2019 could not have produced a whiskey already 20 years old in 2025.[2][3] The original distillery supplying Garavogue 20 is not disclosed in the supplied record.

Sazerac describes a double distilled whiskey initially matured for at least 14 years in American oak previously used for bourbon.[2] The subsequent finishing programme used French Muscat, French Sauternes, Pedro Ximénez sherry and Barbadian rum casks.[2] This is the clearest account of how the whiskey was constructed: long initial maturation followed by work with several different cask types.

The Pot Still reports that Lough Gill was designed to make over 1 million litres of triple distilled single malt a year, while Sazerac describes Garavogue 20 as double distilled.[5][2] These descriptions concern different subjects: the site's design and a release from an undisclosed source. They need not conflict, and neither establishes the site's current distillation practice. The design figure was checked in November 2026.

The supplied maturation account identifies the casks but does not establish proportions, a finishing sequence or individual finishing durations.

The launch gives a bottling strength of 47% ABV (94 US proof).[2][7] The Whisky Exchange also lists Garavogue 20 as not chill filtered and without added colouring. These are retailer reported specifications.[7]

There is no first-hand tasting for this article. The cask details describe production choices, not flavours observed in a glass, so no tasting notes are inferred from the bourbon, wine, sherry or rum casks.

Helen Mulholland and the developing range

Helen Mulholland's approach gives Garavogue a direction beyond its first age statement. She is identified as Hawk's Rock's Master Blender in the release announcement.[2] Verdict: Documented. In a trade account, Mulholland describes Garavogue as deliberately different from the trend for rich sherry finishes in Irish whiskey.[5]

Sazerac envisages limited, experimental Garavogue releases, allowing different ages, maturation methods and possibly different types of Irish whiskey.[2] No particular future bottlings or release dates are confirmed by that statement.

That leaves room for the range to change. Garavogue 20 has its own documented age, distillation description and maturation account; future releases will need to be understood on their own terms. The identity can carry forward without every production detail remaining the same.

Visiting and common mistakes

Hawk's Rock is closed to the public during renovations, according to the producer's information checked in November 2026.[1] Sazerac reports planning permission for a future visitor experience, but no opening date is established in the supplied record.

Before arranging a journey, check the producer's current visitor information for opening announcements, booking requirements, accessibility and age conditions. Planning permission and an announced ambition are not substitutes for confirmed public access.

Three distinctions make the history easier to follow:

• Hawk's Rock and Lough Gill are the same distillery: the April 2025 announcement records a renaming, not a separate site.[1]
• Garavogue 20 was not distilled on site: its age predates the distillery's 2019 commissioning.[2][3]
• Visitor plans do not mean the site is open: the producer reports that it remains closed during renovations.[1]

Where to go next

• Bushmills: explore another Irish distillery profile.
• Teeling: continue through the Irish distillery guide.
• Dingle: discover another individual distillery history.
• Powerscourt and Fercullen: follow another distillery and whiskey name.

Sources

1. Sazerac Company. Sazerac Company Proudly Introduces Hawk's Rock Distillery. Producer announcement, 23 April 2025. https://www.sazerac.com/news-and-media/introducing-hawks-rock-distillery/
2. Sazerac Company. Sazerac's Hawk's Rock Distillery Releases its Inaugural Whiskey: Garavogue 20-Year-Old Single Malt Irish Whiskey. Producer announcement, 4 June 2025. https://www.sazerac.com/news-and-media/hawks-rock-inaugural-whiskey/
3. Sazerac Company. Sazerac Purchases Lough Gill Distillery. Press release, 20 June 2022. https://www.sazerac.com/content/dam/sazerac/corporate/news/press-releases/2022/sazerac/2022-06-20-Sazerac-Purchases-Lough-Gill-Distillery.pdf
4. Law Society of Ireland Gazette. Lough Gill whiskey sold to owner of Southern Comfort. Trade report, 29 June 2022. https://www.lawsociety.ie/gazette/top-stories/2022/june/lough-gill-whiskey-sold-to-owner-of-southern-comfort
5. The Pot Still. The Garavogue: Where Sligo's Poetic Soul Meets a 20-Year Whiskey Masterpiece from Hawk's Rock. Trade article, edition supplied in the fact sheet, checked November 2026. https://blog.thepotstill.irish/the-garavogue-where-sligos-poetic-soul-meets-a-20-year-whiskey-masterpiece-from-hawks-rock
6. Food Manufacturing. Sazerac Renames Irish Distillery in Hopes of Building a 'Global Hub'. Trade report, 2025. https://www.foodmanufacturing.com/facility/news/22939371/sazerac-renames-irish-distillery-in-hopes-of-building-a-global-hub
7. The Whisky Exchange. Hawk's Rock Garavogue 20 Year Old Irish Whiskey. Retailer product record, edition supplied in the fact sheet, checked November 2026. https://www.thewhiskyexchange.com/p/85893/hawks-rock-garavogue-20-year-old-irish-whiskey

This desk-researched draft uses the supplied verified fact sheet and its listed producer and trade sources; no visit or first-hand tasting is claimed.

Last checked: November 2026