Establishing natural climate variability becomes particularly important in remote polar regions, especially when considering questions regarding higher than average warming. We present a high-resolution record of temperature variability for the past 800 yr based on sedimentary diatoms from a treeline lake in Finnish Lapland. The BSiZer multiscale smoothing technique is applied to the data to identify significant features in the record at different temporal levels. The overall reconstruction shows relatively large multi-centennial temperature variability with a total range of about 0.6–0.8°C. At millennial scales, the temperatures exhibit a statistically significant long-term cooling trend prior to industrialization (ΔT = −0.03°C/century). At the centennial timescale, three warm time intervals were identified around AD 1200–1300 (terminal phase of the Medieval Warm Period, MWP), 1380–1550 and from 1920 until the present. Pronounced coolness occurred between AD 1600 and 1920, indicative of the Little Ice Age (LIA). At the decadal level, certain shorter-term climate excursions were revealed. The warmest ∼10–30 yr, non-overlapping periods occurred in AD 1220–1250, 1470–1500 and 1970–2000, respectively. The classic events of MWP and LIA are evident in our record, as is also the 20th century warming.

The Sujala site in northern Finnish Lapland is a reindeer hunters' camp from the early post-glacial period, discovered by the authors in 2002. The site was originally linked with the Preboreal occupation of the north Norwegian coast, but further excavations and analyses indicate that it actually represents a totally new phenomenon: evidence for an eastern influx into Lapland around the Preboreal–Boreal transition. This discovery has far-reaching implications for the colonisation of north Scandinavia, but also for the subsequent development of Early Mesolithic settlement in northern Finland and Norway.