James Doherty spent decades in the international beverage industry, holding executive positions at William Grant & Sons, Foster's, and SABMiller. His family originally hails from Donegal. In 2014, he and his wife Moira, who was born in Zimbabwe, left their life in Hong Kong to settle on the Sliabh Liag peninsula — at the place where his great-grandmother once lived.
Together with a small team, they built the Ardara Distillery: the first legal distillery Donegal has seen in 175 years. They named their first whiskey range Silkie, after the mythical seal-women of the Donegal coast — smooth, smoky, and steeped in local folklore.