Highland Park Distillery Tours: Orkney Visitor Guide

Highland Park distillery tours are among the easiest things in Kirkwall to turn up to unprepared. Every experience has to be booked before you arrive, every one is strictly over-18s, and the distillery sits a solid uphill walk from the town centre rather than on the harbour front where many visitors expect it. This guide covers what the distillery itself currently publishes about visiting — the six experiences and how long each runs, the booking and admission rules, how to actually get there, and what is worth knowing before you go.

Where Highland Park Is, and How to Reach It

The distillery is at Holm Road, Kirkwall, Orkney, KW15 1SU — the address Highland Park gives in its own tour booking terms. It is south of the town centre, on the road climbing out of Kirkwall towards Holm, and it is a working production site rather than a purpose-built visitor attraction parked somewhere convenient.

That matters for planning, because the walk is longer than people expect. Measured on OpenStreetMap pedestrian routing, it is roughly 1.9 km from St Magnus Cathedral to the distillery gate — about 25 to 30 minutes on foot, and uphill nearly the whole way, rising from around 8 m above sea level at the cathedral to about 41 m at the distillery. From the harbour front it is closer to 2.4 km, or a half-hour walk. It is a perfectly pleasant walk in decent weather and a fairly bleak one in horizontal rain, so it is worth deciding in advance whether you are walking, driving or taking a taxi. Visitors relying on public transport will find the practicalities covered in our guide to reaching Orkney's attractions from Kirkwall without a car.

If you are arriving by ship, the distillery is a realistic addition to a day ashore but not a casual one, given the walk and the fact that every tour runs to a pre-booked slot — something worth factoring in alongside the rest of a Kirkwall cruise stopover.

The Six Distillery Experiences

Highland Park currently lists six separate experiences at the Kirkwall distillery, running from a 75-minute introduction up to a three-and-a-half-hour session with the distillery's most senior staff. Every one includes whisky sampling, and the number of drams varies by tour. Group sizes are capped throughout, and the caps are tight at the top end: ten guests on the three shorter experiences, five on the three longest.

We do not publish tour prices here, because they change and a stale number is worse than none. Check the current tour options and prices on Highland Park's own distillery experiences page, which is also where you book.

Booking Rules, Age Limits and Admission

The rules below all come from Highland Park's own visitor FAQs and tour booking terms, read on 19 August 2026. They are unusually specific for a distillery, and a couple of them catch people out.

• Advance booking is compulsory. The distillery's answer to “Do I have to book in advance?” is simply “Yes, all experiences and tours will need to be booked in advance.” There is no turn-up-and-hope option for a tour.
• Strictly over-18s. “All of our experiences and tours are strictly for over 18s only.” This is not a discretionary policy — children cannot join any tour, including the shortest one.
• Bring photo ID. Highland Park operates a Challenge 25 policy and states that visitors may be age-checked on arrival. Without valid photo identification you will not be served alcohol as part of the tour, and no refund is given.
• Card payment only at the distillery for pre-booked tours and purchases.
• Changes need 24 hours. The distillery says it will try to accommodate a date or time change up until 24 hours before your original slot, without guaranteeing availability. Arrive late and you may be moved to the next tour with space, or you may not.
• Mobility. Highland Park asks visitors with specific mobility access requirements to raise them before booking so they can be discussed — so contact them first rather than on the day.
• Assistance dogs are welcome; no other animals or pets are allowed. Smoking and vaping are banned in every area of the distillery.

One more thing worth knowing, because almost nobody mentions it: the distillery's own terms note that during silent season parts of the site may not be fully operational, though experiences and tours still run. If watching production in full flow is the entire point of your visit, ask when you book rather than assuming.

Why the Distillery Is Worth the Climb

Two things make Highland Park genuinely unusual among distilleries you can visit, and both are matters of method rather than marketing.

The first is that it still malts barley on site. In the distillery's own words, “we still hand-turn and dry our barley on-site, infusing it with the unique flavour of our local peat.” Highland Park frames this as maintaining “craft traditions that have been left behind on the mainland,” and it is the single biggest reason the place is worth seeing rather than simply drinking. If the maltings specifically are what you want to see, ask when you book which experiences include them.

The second is the peat. Highland Park's is cut from Hobbister Moor, a few miles from the distillery, and the company states it is “the only distillery in the world to use Orkney heathered peat.” The reason that peat is different is a simple consequence of Orkney's weather: the wind is strong enough that trees struggle to grow, so the moor is heather rather than woodland, and the peat that forms under it smokes the barley differently — aromatic and restrained rather than medicinal.

Unusually, Highland Park owns and manages the stretch of Hobbister Moor it cuts from, which it describes as giving it “rare direct control over our own extraction methods.” The company says the moor is a nature reserve holding red-listed species including hen harrier and curlew, and that it works there under licence from Orkney Islands Council and alongside the RSPB. That account is Highland Park's own; the RSPB's public page for the reserve does not discuss peat cutting.

On the founding date: Highland Park dates itself to 1798, describing its origin as Magnus “Mansie” Eunson, a church beadle and part-time smuggler who “after years of hiding bottles under his pulpit, obtained his first whisky making license in 1798.” That is the distillery's own account rather than an independently established fact, and the smuggler story is told at length — and set alongside Scapa — in our guide to the Orkney whisky trail.

The Kirkwall Flagship Store and Walk-In Tastings

If a full tour does not fit your day, the flagship store in Kirkwall is the alternative. Highland Park describes it as “just down the road from the distillery,” stocking The Classics, Special Editions, Orkney Exclusives and merchandise made with local creatives and producers.

The important practical difference is that in-store tastings need no reservation. Highland Park states that at both the store and the distillery you can taste a selection of whiskies with “no need to book — just turn up and enjoy,” choosing individual 15 ml serves or a flight of three curated pours. As at 19 August 2026 the company gives the store's opening as Monday to Saturday, 10.00am to 5.00pm. It does not publish opening hours for the distillery visitor centre itself, so confirm those directly when you book a tour.

Fitting Highland Park Into an Orkney Trip

The obvious pairing is Scapa, the other malt distillery on Kirkwall's outskirts. The less obvious one is the islands' younger drinks scene — the gin, rum and vodka producers covered in our guide to Orkney gin and craft spirits — which gives you somewhere to go if the tour times do not fit your day.

Whatever you plan, plan the driving first. Scotland's drink-drive limit is markedly lower than the rest of the UK's: 22 micrograms of alcohol per 100 ml of breath and 50 milligrammes per 100 ml of blood, against 35 and 80 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Every one of the six experiences includes whisky. If you are driving yourself between distilleries, someone in the car has to be sitting the tastings out, and the walk into town is a genuine option precisely because a base in Kirkwall puts you within reach on foot.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Highland Park Distillery?

Highland Park is at Holm Road, Kirkwall, Orkney, KW15 1SU — south of Kirkwall town centre on the road towards Holm. It is roughly 1.9 km from St Magnus Cathedral, about a 25 to 30 minute walk, uphill for most of the way.

Do I need to book a Highland Park distillery tour in advance?

Yes. Highland Park states that all experiences and tours must be booked in advance, and payment at the distillery is by card only. Group sizes are capped at 10 for the three shorter experiences and 5 for the three longer ones, so the premium tours have very few places.

Can children visit Highland Park Distillery?

No. Highland Park states that all of its experiences and tours are strictly for over-18s only, with no exception for the shorter tours. If your group includes under-18s, plan for the tour to be a split activity rather than something everyone does together.

Is Highland Park Scotland's northernmost distillery?

Not any more, and the unqualified claim should be retired. Distilleries further north now operate in Shetland: the Shetland Distillery Company on Unst, which bills itself as “the UK's most northerly distillery” but presents as a gin producer, and Lerwick Distillery, established in 2022. Highland Park's own website does not use the phrase on any of its story, craft or visitor pages. Undiscovered Scotland puts it precisely: Highland Park “used to be Scotland's most northerly whisky distillery… Developments in Shetland have removed that title: but it remains Scotland's most northerly large whisky distillery.”

What whisky region is Highland Park in?

Legally, Highland. The Scotch Whisky Regulations 2009 protect only five names: the localities Campbeltown and Islay, and the regions Highland, Lowland and Speyside. There is no legally defined “Island” region, and the Highland region is defined as Scotland north of a line running roughly from the Clyde to the Tay — which includes Orkney. Whisky writers still group Orkney malts informally as Island whiskies.

How long does a Highland Park distillery tour take?

Between 75 minutes and three and a half hours depending on which experience you book. The Welcome Experience runs 75 minutes, the Local Legend 90 minutes, the Cask Strength one hour 45, the Archive two hours, the Orkney Insider three hours and the Rare & Exclusive three and a half.

Can I taste Highland Park whisky without booking a tour?

Yes. Highland Park offers in-store tastings at both the distillery and its Kirkwall flagship store with no booking required, either as individual 15 ml serves or as a flight of three curated pours. You still need to be over 18 and may be asked for photo ID under the Challenge 25 policy.

Is Highland Park whisky peaty?

Lightly and distinctively so. The peat is cut from Hobbister Moor and Highland Park says it is the only distillery in the world using Orkney heathered peat. Because Orkney's wind keeps trees from growing, the moor is heather rather than woodland, which gives an aromatic, restrained smoke rather than the medicinal character associated with Islay malts.