We use a pro-glacial oxygen isotope record of diatom silica (δ¹⁸O_diatom) and a sedimentary proxy for glacier flutuations to determine centennial-millennial scale climate change during the last 5000 yeras in northern Sweden. We show that the lake water isotopic composition åredominantly reflects the isotopic composition of the precipitation. Superimposed on a general depletion trend of 3.5‰ over the past 5000 years we found that the isotopic composition of precipitation became depleted (> 1‰ excursions) during four occasions centered at 4400, 3000, 2000 and, after 1200 cal yr BP. Climate simultaneously sustained a positive glacier mass balance, taht caused the catchment glacier to advance. A peristan cgange in the atmopheric circulation pattern could potentially have caused the registered chnages in the δ¹⁸O_diatom because different air masses hold characteristics δ¹⁸O signatures of their precipitation. The glacier mass balance primarily responds to the influence of summer temperature on ablation. We suggest that the most likely cause for the recorded chnages in both these proxies is a steadily increasing but fluctuating dominance of colder and δ¹⁸O depleted air masses from the north/northeast during the past 5000 years. Theδ¹⁸O_diatom depletion and glacier events all occur at times of relative ice-rafted-debris maxima in the North Atlanic, consistent with cold conditions and changes in surface wind directions. Our results confirm that changes towards a predominace of north/northeasterly winds occured at these time intervals.