Whisky Names Explained: Wolfburn Whisky

As we do every week, in this edition of Whisky Names Explained we’re diving into a whisky name. We often spotlight a specific bottle, but this time we’re exploring the name of a whisky brand: Wolfburn. Where does the name come from?

Wolfburn is the northernmost whisky distillery on the Scottish mainland, close to the port of Thurso. It’s also a relatively new distillery, founded in 2013. At the same time, it’s an old acquaintance: the new distillery was built on the site where a Wolfburn distillery once stood in the 19th century.

In Caithness, in the far north of Scotland, many traces remain from the long period when the Vikings held sway. During the Viking era, the north fell under Norse Orcadian rule, and Thurso served as the gateway to Scandinavia and the northern isles and of course, the route back. Along with the Norse came customs and names, but also myths and legends that took root in Scotland.

In 1821, William Smith founded the first Wolfburn distillery. The name and logo of his whisky stillhouse are inspired by a 16th-century drawing by Conrad Gessner. In Smith’s time, wolves were common in the far north of Scotland. The illustration specifically depicted a sea-wolf, a creature said to bring good fortune to anyone who caught sight of it.

The second part of the name, burn, comes from the Scots word for a stream or small river. By combining the two, William Smith, founder of Wolfburn Distillery, coined the name for his whisky.

Wolfburn Whisky’s current logo was designed in 2011. The wolf sketch is derived from a drawing in Gessner’s Historiae Animalium. The Swiss scholar Gessner (1516–1565) wrote and illustrated the world’s first animal encyclopedia. His extensive travels allowed him to observe and document a great deal, while also incorporating stories and earlier publications.

Gessner understood that not everything included in the encyclopedia could be literal truth. When a fictional creature appeared, he searched for the moral or message behind its description. The sea-wolf, the supernatural cousin of the wolf, likely came from the sagas the Vikings brought with them. Gessner included both the creature and its tale in his book.

Thanks to that story, we have Wolfburn whisky today. And that’s something to smile about.

Want to read more about Wolfburn? Visit our Wolfburn overview.