Top 10 Distilleries in Orkney
Orkney is an archipelago of approximately seventy islands lying off the northern tip of the Scottish mainland, separated from Caithness by the Pentland Firth — one of the most turbulent and powerful tidal passages in the world. The islands were part of the Norwegian kingdom until 1468, when they were pledged to Scotland as part of the dowry arrangement for the marriage of Margaret of Denmark to James III of Scotland. That Norse heritage runs through Orkney's culture, landscape, and even its whisky: Highland Park in particular has long used Viking imagery and identity as a central part of its brand narrative, and the connection is not mere romanticism but reflects a genuine historical and cultural distinctiveness.
Orkney's whisky character is shaped by its location. The islands lie at approximately 59 degrees north — as far north as St. Petersburg — and the climate is dominated by Atlantic weather systems, strong winds, and a relatively mild but very cloudy maritime pattern. The peat here is different from Highland or Islay peat: it is formed from heather rather than sphagnum moss and produces a softer, more floral smokiness. Find Orkney's distilleries on the map and use them as the centrepiece of what is one of Scotland's most extraordinary natural and archaeological landscapes.
1. Highland Park Distillery, Kirkwall, Orkney
Highland Park is the world's most northerly whisky distillery and one of the most universally celebrated single malts in Scotland. Founded in 1798 by Magnus Eunson — reportedly a church officer who simultaneously ran an illicit distillery — and receiving its licence in 1826, the distillery has operated continuously for nearly two centuries in its Holm Road location on the southern edge of Kirkwall. What sets Highland Park apart is its continued use of partial floor malting using Orkney heather-peat, producing a portion of its own malt that carries a distinctive floral, heathery smokiness quite unlike the phenolic smoke of Islay. The 12 Year Old is a reference expression of balanced complexity; the older and limited editions are consistently praised by critics.
2. Scapa Distillery, St. Ola, Orkney
Scapa is located approximately two kilometres west of Highland Park, overlooking the bay of Scapa Flow — the famous natural harbour that served as the main base of the British Royal Navy during both World Wars and where the German High Seas Fleet was scuttled in 1919 after the Armistice. The distillery was founded in 1885 and operates a Lomond wash still — a design that was installed in the 1950s and produces a heavier, more complex low wine than conventional pot stills. Scapa's whisky is unpeated and shows a maritime, saltiness and fruity character quite distinct from Highland Park. The core range is modest in scope; the Glansa (using peated malt) and the Skiren (unpeated) are the two primary expressions.
3. Highland Park Viking Heart 15 Year Old
While the distillery produces only from its single site, the range of expressions available from Highland Park is broad enough that individual expressions deserve separate consideration. The Viking Heart 15 Year Old is matured in a combination of ex-sherry seasoned European oak and ex-bourbon American oak, producing a whisky with more dried fruit, chocolate, and dark spice than the standard 12 Year Old. At fifteen years the Orkney maritime influence and the heather-peat smoke have had time to fully integrate with the wood contribution, creating a whisky of considerable depth. It represents the Highland Park style at a stage of development that many enthusiasts consider optimal.
4. Highland Park Viking Honour 18 Year Old
The 18 Year Old has been ranked among the world's finest whiskies by multiple independent critics and whisky publications. Extended maturation in European oak sherry casks gives it a profound richness — dark chocolate, raisins, candied orange peel — while the distinctive Highland Park peat smoke provides a counterpoint that prevents the spirit from becoming heavy or cloying. The 18 Year Old demonstrates what Orkney's maritime ageing conditions can do when a spirit has time to develop fully: the result is layered, complex, and distinctively individual in a way that challenges the perceived superiority of Speyside sherried expressions in the same age bracket.
5. Highland Park Cask Strength Releases
The periodic cask strength releases from Highland Park, typically issued without age statements but representing mature stock selected for quality, provide access to the full intensity of Highland Park's house character without dilution. Bottled at between 50% and 65% ABV depending on the batch, these releases amplify the heather smoke, dried fruit, and maritime saltiness that the standard expressions present at restrained intensity. For enthusiasts who want to understand Highland Park beyond its mainstream range, the cask strength releases offer the most direct encounter with the distillery's character.
6. Highland Park Dragon Legend
Dragon Legend is a no-age-statement expression from Highland Park that uses a higher proportion of first-fill sherry casks than the core range expressions, producing a richer and more fruit-forward whisky. Released within the Viking Legend sub-range alongside Fire and Ice (two expressions playing on contrasting flavour profiles), Dragon Legend targets consumers looking for bolder, more approachable Orkney whisky without committing to an age-stated release. The expression has found a strong domestic and travel retail market and demonstrates Highland Park's ability to develop new expressions around its core production character.
7. Scapa Skiren
Scapa Skiren is the flagship unpeated expression from Scapa and takes its name from the Old Norse word for gleaming or shining — a reference to the light reflecting off Scapa Flow. Matured exclusively in first-fill American oak bourbon barrels, the Skiren is lighter and more accessible than the complex sherried expressions of neighbouring Highland Park: fresh green apple, tropical fruit, vanilla, and coastal salt predominate. It represents a clear stylistic alternative to Highland Park for visitors to Orkney who want to compare the two distilleries' approaches within the same geographical and climatic context.
8. Scapa Glansa
Scapa Glansa, named after the Old Norse for Glitter, is a peated expression from Scapa that uses malt sourced from peated barley (the distillery does not do its own malting) to introduce smokiness into an otherwise unpeated house style. The result is an unusual whisky: the heavier Lomond still spirit character provides body and richness, while the peated malt adds a maritime smokiness that sits differently from Highland Park's heather-peat character. Glansa is the most unusual and thought-provoking Scapa expression for enthusiasts interested in how the same physical location and climate can produce distinctly different whisky character depending on production choices.
9. Independent Bottlings of Orkney Single Malt
Orkney distillate — particularly older stock from Highland Park and Scapa distilled in the 1970s, 1980s, and early 1990s — occasionally appears through independent bottlers including Gordon and MacPhail, Signatory, and Berry Bros and Rudd. These cask-strength single-cask releases provide access to Orkney whisky at a stage of development unavailable in the standard distillery ranges and allow direct comparison between differently matured batches of the same distillery's spirit. Older independently bottled Orkney malts are prized by collectors and command significant prices at auction.
10. The Orkney Whisky Experience, Kirkwall
The Orkney Whisky Experience, available through combined tours of Highland Park and Scapa alongside the broader archaeological and natural heritage of the islands, represents a way of understanding Orkney's whisky in its full context. The islands are home to some of Europe's most significant Neolithic monuments — the Ring of Brodgar, Skara Brae, the Ness of Brodgar — and the landscape that produced these ancient civilisations is the same landscape that shapes the character of Orkney's contemporary whisky. Visiting Orkney for whisky without engaging with the wider landscape and history is to understand only part of what makes the islands' spirits so distinctive.