Great Northern Distillery

John Teeling, who had previously founded Cooley Distillery in 1987 — the distillery that helped catalyse the modern Irish whiskey renaissance — sold Cooley to Beam Inc. in 2012 and promptly set about building a new venture. With former Cooley colleagues Jim Finn and David Hynes, Teeling purchased the former Great Northern Brewery site in Dundalk and installed a comprehensive portfolio of pot stills and column stills. Distillation began on 31 July 2015.

The strategy was explicit from the outset: Great Northern would operate as a large-scale contract distiller and bulk producer, supplying both own-brand labels and private-label partners across the globe. The first Great Northern-matured 3-year-old Irish whiskey came of legal age in 2018. By 2020 the distillery was storing over 500,000 casks and supplying product to over 400 labels in 32+ countries.

The distillery's own retail brand, Burke's Irish Whiskey, was first released in 2017 — a grain and malt blend accessible and approachable in style. Great Northern also produces for Two Stacks, Natterjack, and Egan's, among many others. Teeling's two sons separately founded The Teeling Whiskey Company in Dublin, creating a notable parallel Irish whiskey dynasty.

Located on the former Great Northern Brewery site, the distillery operates pot stills and column stills alongside a small gin still, covering the full range of Irish whiskey production styles: single pot still, single malt, single grain, and blended. Annual capacity is 16 million litres of alcohol. The scale of operations — over 500,000 casks in warehousing — makes Great Northern the largest warehouse operation in Ireland's independent sector. Production runs approximately 1.2 million bottles per week for private-label and contract partners.

As a contract and private-label producer, Great Northern's output spans a wide range of styles depending on the commissioning brand. The own-brand Burke's Irish Whiskey is a grain and malt blend: light, approachable, and gently sweet with vanilla and cereal notes. Two Stacks (own distillate) presents a fuller, more character-driven Irish blend. Natterjack is a spiced Irish whiskey. The underlying pot still and malt spirit produced at Great Northern is characteristically Irish: oily, slightly spiced, with green fruit and grain sweetness.

Great Northern Distillery is not open to the public. No visitor experience or retail shop on site.