New products from Orkney

However, our food, drink and crafts producers are already back at it, creating brand-new pieces and products from their island bases.

We’ve picked out some of our favourite items you can buy right now from our Creative Orkney and Taste of Orkney members.

One local business has been busier than most this summer. The team at Deerness Distillery is coming to the end of a huge expansion project, with its new café, shop and whisky production area set to open soon. To mark the occasion, the distillery has launched its new blended Scotch, Deer Sound. It comes with a taste of caramel, warm spices, honey and orchard fruit spices, with just a hint of smoke. It will fill the gap until the distillery’s whisky production begins in earnest later this year.

Orkney designers Aurora Jewellery have been creating collections inspired by popular television programme Outlander since 2020 and have just launched the latest line. Crafted in partnership with Sony Pictures Consumer Products, the new range features dragonflies encased in heart-shaped amber. In the show, main characters Claire and Jamie are given a piece of amber with a dragonfly suspended in it as a wedding gift. Designed and handmade in Orkney, The Dragonfly in Amber collection comes in sterling silver and amber coloured enamel, and includes earrings, a lapel pin, pendant, brooch and neckwire.

The newest addition to Orkney Brewery’s Runic range, Lumi is a 1% gluten free pale ale, suitable for vegetarians and vegans. It’s a hoppy beer with tropical and fruity flavours, with a light biscuity taste. Taken from the Norse word for ‘bearer of light’, Lumi is the brewery’s first low strength beer and joins Hafn, Skara, and Brodgar in the Runic canned collection.

Orkney’s ever-changing light and landscape provides perfect inspiration for local artist, Ingrid Grieve. Her latest product features prints of her stunning paintings set on clear block acrylic. Sized at 18x18x2cm, the blocks are perfect for sitting on a shelf or a window sill so you can showcase some Orkney scenery in your home throughout the year.

This summer saw talented Orkney makers Odin’s Kitchen branch out into something brand-new – a wedding cake built from delicious, handmade macarons! Inspired by the French delicacy, the cake proved a huge hit at a local wedding earlier in the season and was made from a mix of lemon and blueberry flavours. Other flavours available locally include Orkney fudge, strawberry, and biscoff.

The latest product from J. Gow Rum is being launched at the Scottish Rum Festival on 7^th September and is the oldest creation from the Orkney distillers to date. Aged in a second fill chestnut cask for six years, Fading Light XO features the same dried fruit, vanilla, citrus and creamy notes found in the regular version, but it is amplified by three extra years in cask, with an intense burst of flavour and a higher ABV at 53.3%. Only 260 bottles are available.

Orkney’s makers are well known for their collaborations, but it’s not often the creative and food and drink sectors come together to craft a special product. Celina Rupp Jewellery and Highland Park Distillery have broken the mould though with Celina’s new cufflink range, which features the distillery’s logo. It’s engraved into hammered silver to give it a rugged, rustic finish, inspired by Highland Park’s aged single malts which have stood the test of time. The cufflinks are available from the Highland Park Shop on Albert Street in Kirkwall.

To mark Sourdough September, the innovative team at the Eviedale Bakehouse has added another delicious product to its range. The new sourdough Beremeal Crackers are made with Orkney’s Viking grain and come in three flavours – original, seeded, and parmesan and tomato. These zero waste products are made with the sourdough discard that comes as a result of feeding the bakery’s sourdough starters. They’re also made with organic regenerative flour. Since the dough is left to ferment during manufacturing, good bacteria in the sourdough helps pre-digest the glutens which means many people who are sensitive to gluten tend to do better with sourdough than traditionally produced crackers.

There’s a constant drive to craft something new at Michael Sinclair’s workshop in Orkney’s West Mainland, and his latest creations certainly tick that box. His new range of hand-turned wooden bowls are made from Scottish green oak and left to warp as they dry. The results are some beautiful shapes and features, with each bowl completely unique. Michael has even decorated one with hand-applied pyrography inspired by a Neolithic symbol.

We know it might be early to mention the ‘C’ word, but with this delicious gin it’s best to start planning early! Christmas Old Tom is a seasonal special from the Orkney Gin Company and features whole fruit flavours, including lemons, oranges, and dried winter fruits, along with cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and a touch of ginger. It’s handmade in Orkney using Orkney Spirits Limited’s Signature Distilled Gin, Aatta. Christmas Old Tom will be available soon so do keep your eye out and get your order in as soon as possible.

Sheila Fleet Jewellery’s beautiful new hoop earrings come in both sterling silver and gold and are available with a range of flourishes, including a Celtic twist, ancient Ogham script, and contemporary organic designs inspired by the seas and landscapes of Orkney. Pictured are Sheila’s matrix large hoop earrings in sterling silver.

Browse our Shop Online pages for more products from our talented Taste of Orkney and Creative Orkney members.