Creative Orkney Trail 2025: 25 Studios, Six Islands, One Map

Orkney has roughly 22,000 residents and somewhere north of two dozen professional craft studios open to visitors — an absurdly high ratio that has been the islands’ quiet badge of honour since the Orkney Crafts Association launched the first Craft Trail in 1996. The brand has since modernised to the Creative Orkney Trail, but the proposition has not: 25 makers, six islands, doors that open onto working benches rather than glass-cased shops. This guide maps every studio currently on the 2025 trail, groups them by medium, and gives you a working itinerary for a two-day visit that takes in the marquee names — Sheila Fleet, Hoxa Tapestry Gallery, the Pier Arts Centre — and the small-island workshops most visitors miss.

The Creative Orkney Trail: 25 Makers Across Six Islands

The trail was launched by the Orkney Crafts Association in 1996 and has run continuously ever since. It is now branded as the Creative Orkney Trail — the same network of working studios, just rebranded under the Creative Orkney umbrella in the 2020s. The 2025 trail features 25 member businesses, all of them professional makers whose primary income is their craft. Studios are spread across the Mainland (Kirkwall, St Ola, Stromness, East Mainland and West Mainland) and the linked-causeway and ferry islands of Burray, South Ronaldsay, Stronsay and Sanday.

This is the bit visitors usually get wrong: the trail is not a queue of gift shops. Most members work out of converted barns, old schoolrooms, repurposed churches and farmhouse outbuildings — you ring a bell, somebody puts down a chisel or a sail-needle, and you talk about the work. The official red-and-white Craft Trail signs still mark the routes, and the downloadable map is the only one you need.

Seven Jewellers, One Island Chain

Jewellery is Orkney’s largest single craft category and the one most visitors come for. The trail has seven member jewellers, ranging from large studios with international export to one-person benches in island sheds.

Sheila Fleet OBE is the marquee name. She founded Sheila Fleet Jewellery in 1993 from a converted shed in her Tankerness garden and was awarded an OBE in the 2013 New Year Honours for services to the jewellery industry. The workshop on East Mainland is now adjoined by the Kirk Gallery & Café — a renovated former St Andrews Church that she acquired in 2007 and opened to the public in 2018 after an eleven-year restoration. The whole site (workshop tour, gallery, café, sea views over the Tankerness coast) is one of the most rewarding single stops on the trail. A second Sheila Fleet gallery sits on Bridge Street in Kirkwall for visitors who don’t make it out to Tankerness.

The other six jewellers are worth planning around:

• Ortak (Kirkwall & St Ola) — the revived institution, known for Celtic and Pictish silverwork and enamel. Engravers are usually visible at work in the Bridge Street studio.
• Karen Duncan Jewellery (Burray) — coastal-inspired silver and gold, often set with Orkney sea glass.
• Celina Rupp Jewellery (East Mainland, near Holm) — elegant silver from a studio overlooking Scapa Flow.
• Alison Moore Designs (West Mainland; Kirkwall & St Ola) — clean Scandinavian-Scots silver and enamel, popular for engagement and wedding pieces.
• Zoe Davidson Jewellery (Stromness) — small-scale silver, often inspired by Stromness flagstones and harbour-front textures.
• Marion Miller Jewellery (Stronsay) — an outer-isle bench. The studio is open April to December, Monday to Friday 12pm–5pm.

If you only have time for one jeweller, make it Sheila Fleet’s Tankerness workshop. If you have time for three, add Ortak in Kirkwall (easy walk-in) and Zoe Davidson in Stromness on the same day — both are within five minutes of Stromness pier.

Hoxa Tapestry Gallery and the Textile Members

The trail’s four textile members run the full range from large-scale fine-art tapestry to working knitwear cooperatives.

Hoxa Tapestry Gallery on South Ronaldsay is the senior institution. It was opened in June 1996 by the late Orcadian artist Leila Thomson (1959–2022), who had graduated from Edinburgh College of Art in Tapestry in 1980. The gallery was extensively expanded in 2012 and now attracts more than 5,000 visitors a year. Leila’s daughter Jo Thomson (Edinburgh College of Art, Painting 2010) and son Andrew run it today following Leila’s death from terminal cancer in August 2022. Jo’s work combines hand-woven tapestry with painting and is the natural inheritance of the gallery’s style.

The other textile members:

• Workshop and Loft Gallery (St Margaret’s Hope, South Ronaldsay) — the trail’s oldest member. The craft producers’ co-operative was established in 1978 and now passes 45 years of continuous trading. The ground floor sells hand-knitted Orkney knitwear from local makers; the Loft Gallery upstairs hosts monthly exhibitions by Orcadian and Scottish artists. Open Tuesday–Saturday, February to December.
• Rosalind Johansson Textiles (Burray & South Ronaldsay / West Mainland) — contemporary woven textiles and clothing.
• Castaway Crafts (West Mainland) — small-batch printed textiles.

The Orkney Chair: Two Makers Still Working the Straw

The Orkney chair — a wooden frame with a curved straw back, traditionally stitched from hand-grown oat straw — is the islands’ most recognisable craft object and one of only a handful of Scottish vernacular furniture types still made by hand. The trail has two members keeping the chair alive, plus a third who works in contemporary furniture.

Scapa Crafts in Kirkwall is the older of the two chairmakers. Jackie Millar established the workshop in 1993 with his wife Marlene and is now among only a handful of Orkney chairmakers working on the islands. Each chair back is built around roughly 200 hand stitches, the straw stitched with sisal twine through a metal regulating ring, and a single chair takes two to three weeks of bench time to complete.

The Orkney Furniture Maker (St Ola) is the second chairmaking workshop. Kevin Gauld set up the studio in 2007 on the family farm and grows the oat straw himself on the farm fields, then dresses it by hand and stitches it with a sail-needle threaded with sisal. The frame timbers are Scottish hardwoods felled from sustainable woodlands. Gauld’s chairs have been exhibited internationally at the Homo Faber and Design Exhibition Scotland shows.

If you only buy one piece of Orkney craft in your life, an Orkney chair is the one most worth saving up for. Expect a wait list of a year and a price tag that reflects the labour. Orkney Hand Crafted Furniture in Kirkwall (Monday–Saturday, 9am–5:30pm) rounds out the furniture group with smaller items in turned wood and joinery.

Pottery, Glass and the Small Workshops

The largest single column on the trail is the homewares group — nine studios spanning ceramics, glass, mirrors, woodturning and natural soap.

Pier Arts Centre and the Gallery Members

The trail’s art-and-photography group is anchored by one major civic institution and four smaller artist-led galleries.

The Pier Arts Centre in Stromness is the trail’s heaviest cultural hitter. It was founded in 1979 to house a permanent gift of modern British art from the writer and activist Margaret Gardiner (1904–2005). The collection has grown to over 180 works including pieces by Barbara Hepworth, Ben Nicholson and Alfred Wallis, plus contemporary art by Sean Scully, Eva Rothschild and Olafur Eliasson. The award-winning timber-and-glass new building, completed in 2007 and lifted directly over the harbour water on the original pierhead, is one of the most striking pieces of contemporary architecture in the Highlands and Islands. Admission is free. (pierartscentre.com)

The smaller galleries complete the picture:

• Toumal Art Studio (Orphir) — Ingrid Grieve’s working oil-painting studio. Evocative Orkney seascape and weather paintings.
• Woodwick Gallery (West Mainland) — mixed-media gallery in a converted West Mainland farm building.
• Aries Gallery (West Mainland) — small contemporary artist-led space.
• The Gallery in the Nortwa’ (Sanday) — the trail’s most northerly outer-isle gallery, on Sanday. Visit by ferry from Kirkwall.
• Jeanne Bouza Rose AT 59 (Stromness) — print and mixed-media studio in central Stromness.

A Working Two-Day Itinerary for the Creative Orkney Trail

The full trail spans six islands and will not fit into a single day. A focused two-day plan covers the eight or nine highest-value stops without rushing.

If you have a third day, add an outer-isle leg: Stronsay (Marion Miller Jewellery, Orkney Star Soap) by ferry, or Sanday for the Gallery in the Nortwa’. Both add an island-hopping ferry day to the trip and reward early booking.

Combine the trail with the Orkney farm shops and local producers route for a four-day food-and-craft itinerary, or pair it with a half-day on the cheese trail dairies for a single shared producers-and-makers day across South Ronaldsay.

Opening Hours, Workshops and Where to Buy the Map

A handful of operational details before you set off:

• The trail runs primarily April to October. Some members (Workshop and Loft Gallery, Sheila Fleet, the Pier Arts Centre, Ortak) are open year-round; outer-isle and small studios stop for winter. Always check the studio’s own page on orkney.com/things/crafts/trail before driving out.
• Ring ahead for outer-isle visits. Marion Miller on Stronsay and the Gallery in the Nortwa’ on Sanday have small ferry windows. A call in the morning saves a wasted crossing.
• Workshops and demonstrations are offered seasonally by several trail members — Sheila Fleet runs scheduled workshop tours, Hoxa Tapestry Gallery hosts weaving demonstrations, and a few of the smaller studios run one-day pottery or silversmithing classes in summer. Book in advance through the studio’s own site.
• The downloadable 2025 guide is the only printed resource you need. Get it from orkney.com or pick up the leaflet from the Kirkwall and Stromness visitor information centres.
• Pier Arts Centre entry is free, Tuesday to Saturday. Many trail members offer 10–15% to Pier Arts Centre members and to Creative Orkney newsletter subscribers.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Orkney Craft Trail and is it the same as the Creative Orkney Trail?

Yes — they are the same network. The trail was launched in 1996 by the Orkney Crafts Association as the Orkney Craft Trail and has been rebranded as the Creative Orkney Trail under the Creative Orkney umbrella in recent years. The membership, the studios and the red-and-white road signs are unchanged. The 2025 trail has 25 member businesses across six islands.

How many studios are on the Orkney Craft Trail?

The 2025 Creative Orkney Trail has 25 member businesses. They span seven jewellers, nine homewares-furniture-ceramics-glass studios, four textiles and tapestry galleries, and five art and photography venues. The food-and-drink “En Route” partner venues listed on the official site are separate from the 25 core member studios.

Where is Sheila Fleet’s workshop in Orkney?

Sheila Fleet’s main workshop is in Tankerness on East Mainland, postcode KW17 2QT. It is adjoined by the Kirk Gallery & Café, a converted former St Andrews Church which Sheila Fleet acquired in 2007 and opened to the public in 2018 after an eleven-year restoration. A second Sheila Fleet gallery sits on Bridge Street in Kirkwall.

Who founded the Hoxa Tapestry Gallery?

Hoxa Tapestry Gallery on South Ronaldsay was opened in June 1996 by the artist Leila Thomson (1959–2022), an Orcadian who graduated from Edinburgh College of Art in Tapestry in 1980. It is now run by her daughter Jo Thomson and son Andrew Thomson following Leila’s death in August 2022. The gallery was extensively expanded in 2012 and attracts over 5,000 visitors a year.

How long does it take to make an Orkney chair?

A single Orkney chair takes a chairmaker two to three weeks of bench work to complete. Each curved straw back is built around approximately 200 hand stitches, the oat straw stitched with sisal twine through a metal regulating ring onto a Scottish-hardwood frame. The trail’s two chairmakers are Scapa Crafts (established 1993 by Jackie Millar) and The Orkney Furniture Maker (established 2007 by Kevin Gauld).

Is the Pier Arts Centre free to visit?

Yes — admission to the Pier Arts Centre in Stromness is free. It was founded in 1979 to house the Margaret Gardiner collection of modern British art, which now contains over 180 works including pieces by Barbara Hepworth, Ben Nicholson and Alfred Wallis. The centre re-opened in July 2007 in an award-winning timber-and-glass extension lifted directly over Stromness harbour water.

When is the Orkney Craft Trail open?

Most trail studios run April to October, with reduced winter hours. Year-round members include the Pier Arts Centre, Sheila Fleet’s Kirk Gallery, Ortak in Kirkwall and the Workshop and Loft Gallery on South Ronaldsay (Tuesday–Saturday, February to December). Outer-isle studios on Stronsay, Sanday and parts of South Ronaldsay are best visited between May and September when ferry connections are most frequent.

What should I read or watch before visiting?

Download the official 2025 Creative Orkney Trail map from orkney.com before you arrive. For background on the artisan tradition itself, the Heritage Crafts association page on Orkney chair-making sets out the technical history of the craft. Anyone interested in the older Orcadian creative tradition should pair the trail with our guide to Orkney’s literary heritage — many of the same writers and makers overlap.

The Creative Orkney Trail is unusual in that almost every studio is still walkable, still working, and still run by the maker whose name is on the sign. Plan two days minimum, ring ahead for the outer isles, and budget for at least one significant purchase — very little of what you’ll see here is available anywhere else in the world. If you’re basing yourself near the Stromness cluster, accommodation in Stromness puts you within walking distance of the Pier Arts Centre, Zoe Davidson Jewellery and Jeanne Bouza Rose AT 59.