Orkney Farm Shops and Local Producers: 2026 Guide

Forget the supermarket. The most memorable Orkney meals begin at a counter — a Kirkwall deli where 60 cheeses sit in a chilled fridge, a Birsay watermill where bere barley has been ground for over a thousand years, a Stromness sourdough loaf still warm in a paper bag. This is a working larder, not a souvenir aisle, and the producers are usually behind the till happy to tell you which boat the scallops came off this morning.

A small independent Orkney delicatessen shopfront in Kirkwall painted dark navy with gold lettering, an A-board chalkboard on the pavement listing Grimbister cheese, Stockans oatcakes and Highland Park whisky, with a window display of whisky bottles, a wooden crate of brown eggs and a wheel of farmhouse cheese on a wet flagstone street under a patchy summer sky — An Orkney deli shopfront in Kirkwall — the kind of A-board you start trusting after about 24 hours on the island.

The shortlist

The Orkney Producer Directory

The full list of shops, hours and what each one is best known for — pinned to one page so you can plan a half-day food run rather than driving blind. Below this is the same data as an at-a-glance infographic; the sections that follow expand on the cheese, meat and drinks side by side.

Best one-stop deli

The Brig Larder, Kirkwall

Mon-Fri 08:30-17:30, Sat 09:00-17:00. 1 Albert Street, near the harbour. Meat, fish, cheese, oatcakes, hampers — open all year.

Cheese specialist

Kirkness & Gorie, Broad Street

Trading in Kirkwall since 1859. At least 60 cheeses on the counter at any time, plus Orkney whisky and wine — a few doors from St Magnus Cathedral.

Stromness pick

Bayleaf Delicatessen, 103 Victoria St

Open every day 10:00-17:30. Local sourdough, Orkney cheese, gourmet pantry — easy walk from the ferry pier.

Largest smokery

Jollys of Orkney, Hatston

Mon-Fri 08:30-16:30, Sat 09:00-16:30 (closed Sundays). Smoked salmon, mackerel, kippers and full hampers. Industrial-estate door — worth the detour.

Editorial directory infographic listing 10 Orkney farm shops, distilleries and producers — The Brig Larder, Kirkness and Gorie, Jollys of Orkney, Orkney Cheese Co, Grimbister Farm Cheese, Bayleaf Delicatessen, Barony Mill, Highland Park Distillery, The Orkney Distillery, Orkney Farmers Market — with parish, opening hours and what each is famous for, plus three regional callout boxes for West Mainland, South Ronaldsay and East Mainland producers — The Orkney producer directory at a glance. Sources: Orkney.com producer listings, Visit Scotland, Taste of Orkney trail, individual producer sites — verified May 2026.

Monthly highlight

Orkney Farmers' Market: One Saturday a Month

If your trip overlaps with the last Saturday of the month, the Orkney Farmers' Market at the Masonic Hall on Castle Street in Kirkwall is the single best food morning on the islands. Roughly twenty producers under one roof — small cheesemakers, jam-and-chutney cottage businesses, North Ronaldsay mutton, smoked fish, bere bannocks, honey — and most of them are otherwise hard to track down on a one-week visit.

Last Sat

Of every month — except December (second Saturday)

09:00-13:00

Four hours, get there early for the bere bannocks

Castle St

Masonic Hall, central Kirkwall — five-min walk from the cathedral

Cash + card

Most stalls take both; smaller producers prefer cash

Inside the Masonic Hall in Kirkwall on a Saturday morning farmers market — long trestle tables with white cloths, rounds of pale farmhouse cheese on wooden boards, a wicker basket of dark bere bannocks, jars of red rhubarb chutney with hand-written labels, a stallholder in a green wool jumper and apron behind the table, bunting strung from the wooden rafters and a chalkboard easel reading ORKNEY FARMERS MARKET LAST SATURDAY — Inside the Masonic Hall on market day. Small producers, one room, one Saturday a month — the easiest way to taste twenty Orcadian cottage industries in an hour.

The cheese story

Orkney Cheese: From Industrial Cheddar to Crumbly Farmhouse

Two completely different cheese traditions sit side by side on Orkney. The famous one is Orkney Extra Mature Cheddar from the Orkney Cheese Company in St Ola, just outside Kirkwall — granted PGI status, made from Orkney milk, and properly aged to a sharp, crystalline bite. Their factory shop sells the full range; some travellers buy a whole 2kg block and slice it down over a week of picnics.

The quieter story is the small farmhouse cheese still made by single families. Grimbister Farm Cheese — made by Ann Seator at Grimbister Farm in Firth — is the best-known: a soft, crumbly, almost paneer-textured fresh cheese that develops a "lemony tang after a few days." You won't find it at the farm gate (it's wholesale only), but it turns up at Kirkness & Gorie, the Brig Larder and Bayleaf Delicatessen, often beside Burnside Cheese and other small Orcadian rounds. For a deeper dive into individual dairies, tastings and what to pair them with, the Orkney cheese trail is the companion piece to this article.

A tight close-up of a single round of Grimbister farmhouse cheese on a wooden board filling most of the frame — pale cream colour, slightly crumbly soft texture visible on a cut edge, a small wedge already sliced off and resting beside it, a wooden-handled cheese knife laid across the cut edge, and a handwritten card reading Grimbister Farm Firth Soft crumbly lemony tang — Grimbister Farm Cheese on a Saturday-lunch board. Pale, crumbly, lemony after a few days — the cheese the Orkney delis quietly evangelise about.

Meat, fish, smoke

Orkney Meat and Seafood: Where the Real Catch Goes

The signature Orcadian meat is North Ronaldsay mutton from the islands' ancient seaweed-grazing sheep — a dark, gamey, slightly briny flavour you genuinely cannot taste anywhere else on Earth. E. Flett Quality Butcher in Stromness is the most reliable source; Donaldsons of Orkney in Kirkwall also stocks it alongside Orkney beef and their own ready meals.

For seafood, three names matter. Jollys of Orkney at Hatston is the largest smokery on the islands — their hot-smoked salmon and traditional kippers travel as well as anything UK-produced. Quality Shellfish, also on the Hatston estate, sells white fish and the famous hand-dived Orkney king scallops to the public when the catch lands. And for the proper restaurant-counter experience — table service, the day's chalkboard — see our guide to Orkney's seafood restaurants for who's cooking what this season.

The ancient grain

Bere Barley and Barony Mill: The Only Mill of Its Kind on Earth

If you visit one producer on this list, make it Barony Mill in Birsay. It's the last working watermill on Orkney and — quietly remarkable — the only mill on Earth still stone-grinding bere, a six-row Neolithic barley that has been cultivated on these islands for over five thousand years. Traces of bere have been found in Orkney chambered cairns.

When to visit

May to September

Tours run every 45 minutes from 11:00; last tour 15:30. Shop open daily 11:00-16:00 in season.

Tour price

£7.50 adult / £4.50 child

7-15 yrs £4.50, under-7s free. After the tour you get free tastings of baked beremeal products in the mill shop.

What to buy

Beremeal flour by the kg

Take a bag home for the best pancakes / scones of your life. Nutty, slightly smoky flavour — totally unlike supermarket wholemeal.

Barony Mill in Birsay, Orkney — a small two-storey grey-stone watermill with a slate roof set against the green flat fields of West Mainland, the wooden water wheel partly turning with water running underneath, a wooden hand-painted sign reading BARONY MILL BERE BARLEY TOURS 11AM-3:30PM, a visitor in a beige rain-jacket walking up the gravel path, pale blue summer sky with broken cloud and a stone wall in the foreground with wildflowers — Barony Mill in Birsay — the only mill on Earth still grinding bere, an unbroken local food tradition older than the pyramids.

Whisky, gin, beer

Orkney Drinks: Distilleries, Gin Stills and Two Great Breweries

For its size — population about 22,000 — Orkney is absurdly well-equipped on the drinks side.

Whisky

Highland Park on Holm Road in Kirkwall is the household name: their visitor centre runs daily 10:00-17:00 from April through September, then closes Sundays and Mondays October-March. Tours range from the standard hour-long to multi-hour cask-strength tastings — book ahead in summer. Scapa Distillery, just down the coast on the shores of Scapa Flow, is the quieter, gentler malt; check their tour calendar separately. A private Orkney spirits tour pairs both distilleries with door-to-door transport — easier if you've left the car at home.

Gin

The Orkney Distillery on Ayre Road, right on Kirkwall's harbourfront, makes Kirkjuvagr Orkney Gin from local botanicals including Ramanas rose. Distillery tours run at 11:00 and 14:00 every day except Sundays, with extra slots added in peak season. Deerness Distillery on the eastern peninsula makes the small-batch Sea Glass Gin and Deerness Wild Vodka — worth the half-hour drive east.

Beer

The Orkney Brewery at Quoyloo in West Mainland is the older one — Dark Island, Northern Light, Skull Splitter — with a proper visitor centre and restaurant. Swannay Brewery, also in West Mainland, is the small-batch craft outfit with cult-favourite IPAs and a fortnightly Saturday taproom. Both regularly use Orkney bere barley.

Orkney has one of the highest densities of distilleries, breweries, smokeries, dairies and cottage food producers per head in Scotland — denser than the Hebrides, denser than Speyside if you count everything. A four-day food itinerary here is genuinely easy.

Practical

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the must-visit farm shops and delis in Orkney?

The Brig Larder (Kirkwall) for the widest single-stop range, Kirkness & Gorie (also Kirkwall) for cheese and whisky, Bayleaf Delicatessen (Stromness) for sourdough and pantry goods, and Jollys of Orkney (Hatston) for smoked fish. If you can time it, the Orkney Farmers' Market at the Masonic Hall in Kirkwall on the last Saturday of every month is the single best food morning on the islands.

Can I tour an Orkney whisky or gin distillery?

Yes — Highland Park (Kirkwall), Scapa (Kirkwall), The Orkney Distillery for Kirkjuvagr gin (Kirkwall harbourfront) and Deerness Distillery (East Mainland) all run tours. Book ahead in summer; many fill up a week in advance. For a stress-free day pairing two distilleries with transport, a guided spirits tour is the easiest way.

Where can I buy Bere meal flour and bere bannocks?

At Barony Mill itself in Birsay, open daily 11:00-16:00 May to September. Out of season, the Brig Larder in Kirkwall and Bayleaf Delicatessen in Stromness usually carry it. The mill is the only place on Earth still stone-grinding bere — the flour is genuinely unique and travels well in a cool bag.

How do I find local produce if I'm self-catering?

The deli + farm-shop route is the most rewarding, but you'll still need the supermarket for staples — for a full breakdown of supermarkets, Co-ops, opening hours and delivery options, see our Orkney grocery shopping guide. The two work together: supermarket basics, deli for the showpiece dinner.

When is the Orkney Farmers' Market?

Last Saturday of every month, 09:00 to 13:00, at the Masonic Hall on Castle Street in Kirkwall — except December, when it moves to the second Saturday. Free entry, twenty-odd producers under one roof. Get there before 11:00 if you want the popular cheeses and bere bannocks.