Client & Project Overview
Slane Castle Irish Whiskey required the delivery of a new distillery within the unique and highly sensitive setting of the Slane Castle estate. The site includes protected historic structures, meaning the distillery had to be carefully designed to accommodate modern whiskey production processes while respecting the constraints and character of the existing buildings. Successfully integrating industrial plant and services into this environment was a central challenge of the project.
PEMCAS was engaged to translate the distillery process brief into a workable, fully coordinated engineering solution. Our role focused on the design, specification, and delivery of the complete whiskey production process, covering grain intake, milling, mashing, fermentation, and distillation for three whiskey styles: single malt, traditional Irish pot still, and grain whiskey. Each process stream required careful consideration of space, access, utilities, and operational sequencing within the fixed building envelopes. We scoped the full process equipment requirements and managed procurement directly with specialist vendors, ensuring suitability, performance, and compatibility with the site. PEMCAS also designed all supporting mechanical and utility systems required to deliver a fully operational distillery. These included gas‑fired steam boilers, process water systems, steam distribution, cooling water drawn from the local river, fire detection and suppression including sprinklers, and full electrical fit‑out with ATEX‑rated elements where required. Secondary steelwork was designed to provide safe equipment access and maintenance without impacting the historic fabric of the buildings.
Key Insights
This project demonstrated that complex industrial processes can be successfully integrated into historic settings through careful planning, clear scope definition, and close coordination with specialist suppliers. Understanding both the production requirements and the limits of the existing structures was key to achieving a practical and respectful design.By managing process equipment procurement alongside utilities and mechanical services design, PEMCAS helped reduce interface risk and ensured a coherent, buildable solution. The result was a working distillery that meets operational needs without compromising the integrity of its historic surroundings—showing how straightforward engineering principles, applied thoughtfully, can deliver strong outcomes in even the most constrained environments.
