The Border Counties

Ulster (Republic)

Ulster, Ireland

Breweries

Towns

Tally's take

The character

Cavan, Donegal and Monaghan — the three Ulster counties on the southern side of a line that has never been theoretical here. Donegal's brewing reaches across into the North as a matter of course. Monaghan's farmhouse brewery serves in a pre-famine cottage from 1837 in Patrick Kavanagh's parish. Cavan got its first real brewery in 2024.

Letterkenny1Carrickmacross1Ballyhaise1Annagary1Muff1

The breweries

5 in this scene

Letterkenny, Co. Donegal, Ireland

Kinnegar Brewing

Donegal's flagship, and one of the few Irish breweries with genuine cross-border reach into the North. Rustbucket made a rye ale a normal thing to order in Ireland, which took some doing.

IndependentLimeburner Pale Ale

Carrickmacross, Co. Monaghan, Ireland

Brehon Brewhouse

A working dairy farm in Inniskeen — Patrick Kavanagh's parish — where the tasting bar is a pre-famine cottage from 1837. Beer served in a building that predates the Famine, on land the poet wrote…

IndependentShanco Dubh Stout

Ballyhaise, Co. Cavan, Ireland

Bréifne Gael Brewing

New in 2024, naming everything in Irish, in a county that had essentially no brewing. Bréifne is the old kingdom that covered Cavan and Leitrim.

IndependentÓr Dubh Irish Stout

Annagary, Co. Donegal, Ireland

Errigal Brewing

Named for Donegal's quartzite mountain, brewing in the Gaeltacht on the wildest coast in Ireland.

Independent

Muff, Co. Donegal, Ireland

Otterbank Brewing Co.

Wild fermentation and barrel-aged cider on the Inishowen side of the border, minutes from Derry. Patient beer in a place where the border has never been theoretical.

Independent

Counts here are the length of this list, not an estimate. For why a brewery you know might be missing — closures, shared roofs, contract brands, ownership exclusions — see how we count.