I Visited the World's Northernmost Distillery in Lyngen

The road south from Tromsø hugs the shoreline of Ullsfjorden, the mountains rising so steeply on either side that the water below looks like a river. It's mid-February, and the sun barely clears the ridge before sliding back into oblivion. My destination is Lyngen — specifically, a converted NATO Cold War bunker at 69 degrees north, where a small team is making whisky under the polar night.

This is Aurora Spirit Distillery, the world's northernmost distillery. And yes, they have paperwork to prove it.

The Drive Down from Tromsø

Lyngen is about 90 minutes south of Tromsø by car — take the E8 through Nordkjosbotn, then south along the Lyngenfjord. It sounds straightforward, but this is Norway in February: pack winter tyres, drive slowly, and leave extra time for the road sections where the mountain simply falls into the sea on your left and a sheer cliff rises on your right.

I left Tromsø at 10am, wanting to arrive for the 12:30 tour. The light was extraordinary — that low Arctic winter light that turns everything into a Turner painting. Snow-capped peaks reflected in the grey-green fjord. A sea eagle circling above a fishing boat. I pulled over three times to take photos.

The distillery sits at Lysnes, on the eastern shore of the Lyngenfjord, a small cluster of buildings that would be unremarkable if it weren't for the dramatic backdrop: the Lyngen Alps surging to over 1,800 metres on the opposite shore, their flanks white with season's snowpack.

Inside a Cold War Bunker

Aurora Spirit was founded in 2016 by Rolf Magne Larsen and operates under the Bivrost brand — a name from Old Norse meaning "shaking road." The ancient Vikings called the northern lights bivrost, believing the aurora was a pathway the gods walked between Midgard (Earth) and Asgard (the realm of gods). It's a name that fits perfectly in a place where the lights appear most winter nights.

The guided tour (NOK 349 per person, roughly €30) starts in the main visitor building before heading underground. The NATO bunker that forms the heart of the operation was built during the Cold War — Lyngen sits less than 200km from the Russian border — and its thick concrete walls and constant cool temperature turn out to be perfect for maturing whisky. Our guide, a young woman in her 20s who clearly loved every detail of the process, led us through the tunnel system with a torch, pointing out the racks of casks in the darkness.

"The temperature in here stays between 5 and 7 degrees Celsius year-round," she explained. "Slower maturation. The whisky takes longer to reach where we want it, but the character it develops — the Arctic climate is part of the flavour."

What They Make

Bivrost produces three categories of spirit:

Single Malt Whisky — the flagship. Made with Scottish malted barley (there's no suitable local grain at this latitude) but distilled and matured entirely in Lyngen. The climate, the water from the local glacier-fed stream, and the bunker maturation give it a distinctive Arctic character: clean, with hints of coastal mineral, light peat, and a surprising sweetness. The current releases are around 5-6 years old and already impressive.

Arctic Gin — made with local botanicals including cloudberry, angelica root, and mountain herbs foraged from the Lyngen valley. Bright, aromatic, and intensely floral. This is what I'd recommend to anyone who doesn't usually drink gin — the botanicals are so vivid it almost tastes like drinking a Norwegian summer meadow.

Aquavit — the traditional Scandinavian spirit, here made with caraway and dill from the region. Served properly chilled, it's the ideal companion to the local Arctic char they serve at tastings.

The Tasting

After the bunker tour, we sat around a long wooden table in the visitor room — floor-to-ceiling windows looking directly at the Lyngen Alps, the fjord a sheet of steel below — and the tasting began.

Three spirits, three small pours. The gin first (always start lighter), then the aquavit, then the whisky. Our guide walked us through each one, talking about the local ingredients, the maturation process, the story of how a former NATO base became an arctic distillery.

I bought a bottle of the gin. The single malt was briefly tempting at around NOK 900 a bottle, but I was travelling light. The aquavit went home with the couple sitting next to me, who had driven all the way from Bergen specifically for this visit.

Practical Information

Aurora Spirit is located at Lysnes, Lyngen municipality — about 90 minutes south of Tromsø by car. The address for GPS is: Lysnes, 9060 Lyngen.

Tours run:

• December–March: Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday
• June–mid August: Monday–Saturday
• Shoulder seasons: Thursday and Saturday
• Opening hours: 11:00–15:00
• Tour times: 12:30 and 14:00 (Saturdays: 12:00 and 14:00)

Price: NOK 349 per person for the guided tour (~45-60 minutes). Tastings available additionally. Age limit for tasting: 20 years. No age limit for the tour itself. The visitor centre is fully disability-accessible.

When to Go

Winter (December–March) is the obvious choice if you want to combine the distillery with northern lights viewing. The distillery runs tours Tue/Thu/Sat in winter — plan your Lyngen visit to include a distillery tour day and an aurora evening. The lights over the Lyngen Alps are legitimately spectacular; Lyngen has an aurora score of 8/10 and is far less crowded than Tromsø.

Summer visits mean longer opening hours and the chance to see the midnight sun, which creates extraordinary photographic conditions for the distillery's mountain backdrop — but no northern lights, obviously.

Worth the Detour?

Absolutely. Aurora Spirit is the kind of place that doesn't feel like a tourist attraction — it feels like a discovery. The location is dramatic, the product is genuinely excellent, and the story of a team making world-class spirits inside a Cold War bunker at the edge of the habitable world is one you'll be telling for years.

If you're spending time in Tromsø, carve out a day for Lyngen. The drive alone is worth it. The whisky is a bonus.

Getting there: Fly into Tromsø Airport (TOS), then drive 90 minutes south on E8. See our full Lyngen destination guide and Tromsø guide for accommodation and itinerary ideas.