Great Northern Distillery
Great Northern Distillery is an Irish owned distillery on Carrick Road in Dundalk, County Louth, below the Cooley Mountains. It occupies the former Great Northern Brewery and produces several styles of Irish whiskey spirit, as well as poitin and gin.
The distillery is a bulk supplier to whiskey brand owners rather than a consumer tour destination. Its story connects Dundalk’s brewing past with a newer distilling operation, while also sitting alongside a much older history of distilling in the town.
A brewery site in Dundalk
The producer gives the distillery’s address as Carrick Road, Dundalk, County Louth, A91 P8W9. The setting below the Cooley Mountains places it in a town with a history of both brewing and distilling. The present operation is on the site of the former Great Northern Brewery, which was set up in 1896.
According to the producer, Diageo’s link with brewing in Dundalk dates from the late 1950s. The brewery made stout and ale until 1960, when Guinness converted it to lager production, creating Harp Lager. It was the second largest brewery in Ireland until its closure in 2013.
The distillery took over the site in 2015. Its change of use is a notable part of the Great Northern story: a brewery associated with Harp Lager became the home of what trade sources describe as Ireland’s largest independent distillery.
The producer also dates brewing in Dundalk to the late 1600s. That account places the former brewery within a longer local tradition, although the Great Northern Brewery itself was established much later, in 1896.
Distilling before Great Northern
Great Northern did not introduce distilling to Dundalk. The earlier Dundalk Distillery operated from 1708 to 1926, according to the producer’s history of Irish whiskey.[1] Its run ended long before spirit began flowing at Great Northern in 2015.
The old distillery also left a visible connection to the town. Its grain store and maltings now house the County Museum and Dundalk Library. Those buildings are associated with the earlier Dundalk Distillery, not with a continuous Great Northern operation.
The distinction matters when reading local whiskey history. Great Northern is a modern distillery on a former brewery site, while Dundalk Distillery was an older, separate operation. Both form part of the town’s distilling story, but their dates and premises should not be treated as interchangeable.
Founder and owners
John Teeling founded Great Northern, and trade accounts name Jim Finn and David Hynes, former Cooley directors, as cofounders. The first spirit was produced on 31 July 2015.[3] The producer says the first three year old whiskey followed in 2018.
A trade account names the owners as John Teeling, his sons Jack and Stephen, James Finn and David Hynes. It also says the owners previously set up Cooley and rebuilt Kilbeggan, before selling both in 2012. Those earlier distillery connections are part of the background to Great Northern.
Great Northern should not be confused with the Teeling distillery in Dublin. Teeling Whiskey Company is a separate business run by John Teeling’s sons. The family connection is relevant, but it does not make the Dundalk and Dublin operations the same distillery.
The producer names Vanessa McMahon as general manager and Paul Mundie as head of distillation. Together with the founding and ownership details, these names give a picture of the people associated with the Dundalk operation, rather than a claim about its visitors or its customer brands.
What Great Northern produces
Great Northern has pot stills, column stills and a small gin still. The fact sheet does not establish the number of stills of each type, so a more detailed still count cannot be given reliably. The equipment supports a range of spirits rather than a single whiskey style.
The whiskey styles reported for the distillery are grain, triple distilled malt, double distilled malt, peated malt and pot still. This range is central to its business as a supplier: brand owners can obtain different kinds of spirit from the same producer.
The distinction between new make and mature whiskey is also important. The producer says it supplies both, covering malt, pot still and grain whiskey in bulk. A brand associated with Great Northern therefore need not be described simply as buying newly distilled spirit.
Poitin and gin are also reported among the spirits produced there. The small gin still is mentioned separately from the pot and column stills, but the available information does not establish a complete numerical breakdown of the equipment at the site.
Capacity and reported figures
Great Northern’s capacity is disputed across the available accounts. One trade source gives 16 million litres of alcohol a year. A report of the producer’s pages says the Our Story text gives 16 million litres a year, while headline figures give 20 million. The fact sheet also records a figure of 17 million on another page.
These figures should not be presented as a single settled capacity. In particular, the true capacity in litres of pure alcohol is not reliably established by the supplied evidence. The differences may be important to anyone comparing Great Northern with other distilleries.
A capacity split reported in March 2025 gives 12 million litres of grain and 8 million litres of malt. That is a reported split, not a resolution of every conflicting figure. A trade account also says malt production was cut back from December 2024, which is a separate point from the distillery’s stated capacity.
Bulk whiskey and brands
The producer describes Great Northern as a supplier of mature and new make malt, pot still and grain whiskey to brand owners in bulk. That business model helps explain why the distillery’s name is not necessarily the most prominent name on a customer’s bottle.
Trade sources identify Two Stacks, Natterjack and Egan’s as customers. The supplied information does not reliably establish which brands beyond those named customers are made there. It is therefore best not to turn a broad account of Great Northern’s business into an unverified list of brands.
Burke’s Irish Whiskey has its own place in the producer’s account. It was first released in 2017, including five casks of 14 to 15 year old single malt at cask strength. A trade source also describes Burke’s as a grain and malt blend.
Those descriptions should be kept distinct. The account of the initial release refers to particular casks of single malt, while the trade description refers to a blend. Neither description on its own establishes the contents of every Burke’s release.
The producer reports more than 32 private labels. WhiskeyAtlas gives a different measure, reporting more than 400 labels in over 32 countries. Because the descriptions and totals differ, they are best attributed to their respective sources rather than combined into one figure.
Reported bottling figures differ too. The producer gives one million bottles a week, while WhiskeyAtlas reports 1.2 million. These are accounts of bottling volume, not a settled figure for the number of bottles carrying any one customer’s label.
Casks and warehousing
The producer reports 500,000 casks in bond. That figure sits alongside the distillery’s business supplying mature whiskey as well as new make, although the supplied information does not give a breakdown of the casks by whiskey style or customer.
A 2019 planning application for 13 warehouses at Kilcurry, County Louth, was refused.[2] The fact sheet does not reliably establish whether those warehouse plans were later approved. The refusal should therefore not be presented as either the final outcome of every subsequent proposal or evidence of a later approval.
Visiting Great Northern
Great Northern offers no consumer tours, according to trade sources. Its Dundalk address identifies the production site, but visitors should not assume that the distillery operates a public tour simply because it is a major whiskey producer.
For anyone interested in Dundalk’s older distilling history, the former grain store and maltings of Dundalk Distillery now house the County Museum and Dundalk Library. They provide a separate connection to the town’s past, not a tour of the current Great Northern operation.
Sources
- Great Northern Distillery. The History of Irish Whiskey. Producer’s account.
- Whisky Clan. Great Northern Distillery: History and Owners. Trade account.
- WhiskeyAtlas. Great Northern Distillery. Trade account.