Roe & Co Distillery Dublin: Tours, Cocktail Classes & Tastings

Roe & Co sits in the former Guinness Power Station at 92 James’s Street in the Liberties — a cathedral-scale brick-and-steel building directly across the road from the Guinness Storehouse. It is a genuinely working distillery, with three copper pot stills visible from a raised glass walkway running through what was once the generator hall. The experiences it offers are cocktail-led and hands-on, run in small groups, and consistently rated the highest of any Dublin distillery visit on TripAdvisor (5.0 from over 1,100 reviews). If you love cocktails, design-led spaces or want to pair a whiskey experience naturally with the Guinness Storehouse next door, this is the Dublin distillery for you. If you want extensive rare-whiskey tastings or a long traditional production tour, it probably is not.

At a glance

The two experiences

Roe & Co currently offers two ticketed experiences, both 45 minutes with a further 45 minutes at a reserved table in the Power House Bar included. Both start with a guided walk across the raised glass viewing bridge through the Still House, where you look down onto the three working copper pot stills. There is no self-guided option.

Flavours Experience — €28. The cocktail-first option. You explore five pillars of flavour (sweet, sour, bitter, salty, umami), identify your own palate preferences, and work with the guide to build a whiskey cocktail tailored to your taste. You finish with a seasonal rotational cocktail in the Power House Bar. This is the more accessible, social experience — the one most naturally suited to hen and stag groups, design and cocktail enthusiasts, or anyone who wants a lively hour rather than a whiskey lecture.

Beyond the Blend — €42. The whiskey-forward option, formerly called the 106 Blending Experience. It includes a guided tasting of three premium whiskeys, an artisan confectionery pairing, and a hands-on session where you create your own whiskey blend and turn it into a cocktail (typically built around an Old Fashioned). Ends with a signature cocktail in the bar.

The Power House Bar. Open to walk-ins without a tour ticket. The bar was designed by Drinksology (behind several World’s 50 Best Bars establishments) and serves an extensive cocktail menu plus non-alcoholic cocktails, soft drinks and beers. No food is served in the bar itself, but seasonal food trucks run in the garden and the venue hosts pop-up dining residencies. Over-18s only, even for the bar.

Private and group hire. Full venue hire is available for drinks receptions (up to 80 people) and sit-down dinners (up to 40 outside). Corporate and group packages are available on enquiry.

More to see in the Liberties

Roe & Co on James’s Street sits in the heart of Dublin’s most concentrated whiskey neighbourhood. The Guinness Storehouse is across the road, Pearse Lyons Distillery in its converted church is a few hundred metres along James’s Street, and Teeling Whiskey Distillery on Newmarket is a 15-minute walk. This cluster makes the Liberties the best half-day for whiskey and stout in the city.

Practical details

Age rule: strictly 18+ with valid government photo ID. No exceptions, no children — including no babies in prams. Arrive 10–15 minutes early for ID checks.

Getting there. Roe & Co is on the north side of James’s Street, The Liberties, Dublin 8. The Guinness Storehouse is literally across the road — reviewers cite a two-to-five-minute walk. Pearse Lyons Distillery is a few hundred metres along James’s Street. The Luas Red Line James’s stop is roughly 500 m away. Dublin Bus routes 13, 40 and 123 run from the city centre to James’s Street. All three main hop-on-hop-off operators stop at a designated Roe & Co / Guinness stop.

Opening hours. Power House Bar: Sunday–Wednesday 12:00–19:00; Thursday 12:00–20:00; Friday–Saturday 12:30–21:00. Experiences run Sunday–Wednesday 12:00–17:00; Thursday 12:00–18:00; Friday–Saturday 12:00–19:00. Closed Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and St Stephen’s Day. Some older third-party listings show different or restricted hours — confirm current times on the official site before you travel.

Accessibility. Fully wheelchair accessible with step-free routes. An official AsIAm Autism Friendly Accredited venue, with sensory kits and a visual guide; the first Beyond the Blend on the first Wednesday of each month runs as a sensory-friendly session. One care assistant enters free — email ahead with your booking reference.

Not on the Go City All-Inclusive Pass. Roe & Co is not included on the standard Go City Dublin Pass. It has historically appeared on the Go City Explorer Pass, but this should be verified directly before relying on it.

The building and the whiskey

The distillery occupies the former Guinness Power Station, built between 1946 and 1948 (337 piles, 700 tonnes of structural steel, a million bricks) to supply electricity and steam to St James’s Gate. It lay dormant from 1997 until Diageo invested €25 million in the conversion, which opened as a distillery and visitor experience in 2019. The project was led by RKD Architects with interiors by Drinksology, retaining original brick, corroded steel gantries and obsolete plant machinery and adding a curved glazed viewing bridge through the Still House. It was nominated for the 2022 EU Prize for Contemporary Architecture (Mies van der Rohe Award) and named Ireland’s Visitor Attraction of the Year and Brand Innovator of the Year at the Icons of Whisky Awards 2025.

The distillery runs three copper pot stills — Vision (wash still), Valor and Virtue (spirit stills) — under Head Distiller Lora Hemy, with capacity for around 14,000 litres per run. The flagship Roe & Co Blended Irish Whiskey (45% ABV, non-chill filtered) was developed by Master Blender Caroline Martin from 120 prototype blends — the final product is number 106, hence the “106” branding throughout the visitor experience. It is a blend of malt and grain whiskeys in ex-bourbon American oak: creamy and fragrant, with soft spice, spun sugar, spiced pear and woody vanilla. It scored 94 points from Wine Enthusiast. Newer expressions include a Cask Strength series and the Solera Single Malt (launched 2024, made with house-distilled spirit).

The brand’s history

The distillery is named for George Roe & Co, whose Thomas Street distillery was recorded in the 1880s as the world’s largest distillery by potential output — 17 acres, eight pot stills, nearly two million gallons a year, twice the output of Jameson’s Bow Street operation. The Roe family also funded the restoration of Christ Church Cathedral. The distillery closed in 1926; Diageo revived the name, launching the whiskey in March 2017 and opening the current distillery in 2019. Two relics of the original Roe operation survive nearby: St Patrick’s Tower (a ~150-foot windmill built in 1757, now part of the Digital Hub) and a pear tree planted around 1850 — which explains the pear in the Roe & Co logo.

Honest assessment

Roe & Co earns its 5.0 TripAdvisor rating. Reviewers consistently praise the guides (named guides like Oisin, Erin, Isaac and Jake recur), the interactive format, the stunning space and the small group sizes. Many say it exceeded expectations and bettered other Dublin distillery tours they had done.

The honest caveats: both experiences are only 45 minutes, and the emphasis is firmly on cocktails and flavour exploration rather than deep whiskey education or extended tasting flights. Purists who want to work through a wide range of Irish whiskey expressions or get into production detail may find the experiences light. The flagship blend itself is smooth and mixable but not complex — it is “whiskey by bartenders, for bartenders,” which is exactly what Roe & Co wants it to be.

For a working distillery with a more traditional tour structure, Teeling in Newmarket or Pearse Lyons on James’s Street are the alternatives. Our full Dublin distillery comparison covers all the options side by side.

The Guinness Storehouse pairing

The natural half-day plan is the Guinness Storehouse first (~2 hours), then Roe & Co across the road for a 45-minute experience plus a bar cocktail — a comfortable, drink-focused afternoon in the Liberties. Both are Diageo properties, which is why the buildings face each other and why combo tickets are sold. Doing both in sequence also makes practical sense for pacing: the Storehouse is largely self-guided and floors can be done at your own speed, so you arrive at Roe & Co at a set appointment time without feeling rushed.

Tickets and booking

Book direct on roeandcowhiskey.com for the clearest pricing (€28 Flavours / €42 Beyond the Blend) and standard cancellation terms. Third-party resellers (GetYourGuide, Headout, Tiqets, Viator) are convenient and sometimes discounted but may carry stricter cancellation policies — check your specific ticket terms before paying.

Weekend slots often sell out one to two weeks ahead; walk-ins to the bar are easier than walk-ins to the experiences. Book early for weekend visits and any group bookings.

Frequently asked questions

Is Roe & Co a real working distillery? Yes — three copper pot stills (Vision, Valor, Virtue), distilling since June 2019, visible from the raised glass viewing bridge on both experiences.

Can I visit the bar without booking a tour? Yes — the Power House Bar is open to walk-ins for drinks without a tour ticket. No food is served there, though garden food trucks run seasonally.

Can I bring children? No — strictly over-18s only with photo ID. No children or babies are permitted on tours or in the bar.

Do I take home my blend? In Beyond the Blend you create your own blend and turn it into a cocktail on site; personalised take-home bottling is available through the distillery shop separately, not from the workshop itself.

Is it on the Dublin Pass? Not on the Go City All-Inclusive Pass. It has appeared on the Explorer Pass; verify directly with Go City before purchasing.

How does it compare to the cocktail class at Jameson? Jameson’s Cocktail Making Class (€60, 60 min) is a formal mixology session making three cocktails. Roe & Co’s Flavours Experience (€28, 45 min) is flavour-discovery-led and ends at the bar. Roe & Co is more affordable and faster; Jameson’s class is longer and more technique-focused. Neither is a substitute for the other — they have different vibes.