The Orkney Brewery – A Tour and Lunch in the Old Schoolhouse
A few hours.
The route
The Orkney Brewery brews its ales in an old Victorian schoolhouse at Quoyloo, in the West Mainland north of Stromness, and its tour takes you through the brewhouse and 5,000 years of Orkney brewing before a taste at the end.
Lunch is in the Tasting Hall café, once a classroom, with local food, home baking and a paddle of three ales. Children get a tour of their own.
Before you go
Book accommodation nearby
If you are staying over: here are ours nearest where the day starts and ends.
None of ours is close by: the nearest is House of the Northern Gate, 31 miles away. Sleeps 18.
Book the Orkney Brewery tour and a lunch table on 01856 841777 or at enquiries@orkneybrewery.co.uk before you go, Monday to Saturday, for an 11.30am, 12.30pm, 1.30pm or 2.30pm tour (the times can change when nobody has booked), and from November ring to check it's open.
The day
Quoyloo
Twenty minutes behind the scenes in the brewhouse, a taste of the ales, and a long lunch in the old schoolroom.
About two hours
The Orkney Brewery
The Orkney Brewery's visitor centre is in the old schoolhouse at Quoyloo, north of Stromness, with its car park at the door. It opens Monday to Saturday from 10am to 5pm and is shut on Sundays. Tours run at 11.30am, 12.30pm, 1.30pm and 2.30pm, and the times can change when nobody has booked, so ring 01856 841777 or email first. At the time of writing a tour with sampling costs £12.75 for an adult, £5 for under-18s and £33 for a family of two adults and two children aged five and over, with under-5s free. It lasts about 20 minutes, through the brewhouse and past the fermenting vessels, with a timeline of 5,000 years of Orkney brewing, and ends with a taste. Children have their own tour of the brewery and the schoolhouse, with a puzzle jotter and stamps to collect, and there's a box of toys for toddlers. The Tasting Hall café serves lunch from 11.30am to 3.30pm, with a children's menu, home bakes, good coffee and a paddle of three ales; book a table the same way. The driver can buy ales in the shop to take home instead. It's all step-free except the viewing gallery, and photographs show that part of the tour.
If it rains
The tour, the shop and the Tasting Hall café are all indoors.
Where to stay
Make it a weekend
More days out on Orkney.
Photographs by Elizabeth Eubanks and Wendy Wolmarans via Google