Great Northern Distillery

The Great Northern Distillery was founded on the site of the former Great Northern Brewery in Dundalk, Co. Louth which famously produced Harp Lager.

Owned by Irish whiskey legend John Teeling and his sons Jack and Stephen, James Finn and David Hynes, the old Harp brewery officially became a distillery when the team made their first spirit there on July 31st 2015.

The distillery operates two distinctive stills; pot stills and columns stills. These produce a diverse range of Irish whiskey spirits including grain, triple distilled malt, double distilled malt, peated malt and pot still whiskey.

The distillery currently has a capacity of 17 million litres, making it the largest independent distillery in Ireland.

The first 3 year old matured Irish whiskey produced at the distillery came of age in 2018.

Unusually for an Irish distillery, the primary market for its whiskey are bulk private labels, contract distilling, retail own-label and supplementing spirit and whiskey for smaller distilleries.

In 2019 John Teeling and The Great Northern Distillery were denied planning permission for an expansion on the grounds that it would be a “discordant and obtrusive feature on the landscape at this location” The Dundalk-based distillery was seeking 10-year permission for the development of 13 whiskey warehouses in the village of Kilcurry, County Louth but were unsuccessful in their planning application.

Great Northern Distillery does not currently offer consumer tours and do not look like they will progress towards it in the foreseeable future.