Rademon Estate is made up of over 500 acres of land which dates to AD565. As well as, with the original estate house dating back to 1667. History surrounds the estate; from Rademon House itself, through to the original courtyard, cottages and workers bell. Not to mention, the imposing obelisk in honour of the 19th Century Estate Manager, William Sharman-Crawford.
Just over 400 years later, our Distillery has sparked its own history within Rademon Estate. When the first foundations laid in the summer of 2012. Since then we have grown and expanded with the extension of our stunning glass still house which houses our beautiful copper stills, and the addition of our state of the art Visitor Centre.
Why not join us on one of our Distillery tours to find out more about Rademon Estate and its heritage and raise a glass to Northern Ireland’s first craft distillery.
Before we dive into explaining how we nurture, forage and distil our award-winning gin and Irish Whiskey. Let us start at the beginning of our journey, when owning our very own distillery was a mere visionary dream.
Fiona and David wanted to create the first distillery producing hand-crafted super premium spirits in Northern Ireland. For us, our dream started with gin, a spirit we had always been enthusiastic and passionate about.
In 2011 we married and started thinking about the distilling business and how we could make our dream a reality.
We did our research and from January 2012 we travelled the world and visited distilleries across the UK, Ireland, Europe, America and Asia. Immersing ourselves in the drinks and distilling industry, learning as we travelled.
We ordered our first still in January 2013. A copper masterpiece arrived in early summer. Crafted by the world renowned coppersmiths Christian Carl in Germany, our copper still combined the best of old and new technology with a 450L Copper Pot Still and two, seven plate enrichment columns.
With our Still installed we began our botanical odyssey to craft a gin of true terroir with a goal of capturing the essence of Rademon Estate in each and every bottle of our gin.
"The joy and excitement of seeing and tasting the first drop of spirit distilled is something that will live long in our memories"
We hand bottled and wax sealed the first bottles of Shortcross Gin and officially launched in April 2014. Since then we have grown modestly, supported by our friends, family and local community, our aim continuously remaining the same; to focus on making great spirits.
Our next distilling chapter begins as we embark on our Shortcross Irish Whiskey adventure.