Retail Spotlight - The Kirk Gallery & Café

To avoid disappointment or a potentially long wait, we highly recommend booking a table in the Kirk Café before you visit. 

We are open seven days a week from 10-5pm Mon-Sat and 11am-5pm on Sundays. Homebakes and cakes are served all day with hot food available 10am-3pm. 

The Kirk Gallery & Café is a sensitive restoration of the old parish church of St. Andrews, situated beside Sheila Fleet’s workshop and home in Tankerness. Acquired by Sheila in 2007, an 11-year journey began to give this historic building a new lease of life. The Kirk Gallery & Café is the ultimate place to experience Sheila Fleet Jewellery and currently holds a TripAdvisor 5-star rating as well as being rated the No.1 location for lunch in Orkney!

Custom-made cabinets in the Kirk are situated where the pews once stood, and display Sheila’s vast range of contemporary and traditional jewellery. The arched windows along one side have been transformed into doorways and provide access to the Kirk Café while the Gallery’s mezzanine holds a range of arts and crafts, both locally made and from the wider UK. 

Sheila and Martin carefully incorporated many features of the Kirk into the Café extension. The wooden church pews are now cosy, cushioned seats and above, the hanging brass lamps are all from the original building. Adding to the authentic Kirk pieces, Sheila commissioned various new features such as the elegant chairs made by Leo Kerr of Kerr Carpentry, that feature stained glass from some of the original Kirk windows.

The Kirk Café caters for a range of dietary requirements, including exclusive menus for gluten and dairy intolerance. The menu offers a delicious mix of local delicacies and produce. Whether you’d like to try some Orkney meat, ham, fish or seafood, something simple or more elaborate, a cold snack or hot meal, you’ll find a dish that appeals to your taste buds.

The Kirk’s Hasselback Tatties – roasted potatoes gratinated with Orkney mature cheddar, served with spring onions and sour cream – is a highly recommended dish and a firm favourite with Café visitors and staff.

The Kirk Burger - a new dish on our summer menu! Two Donaldsons of Orkney beef and bone marrow burgers baked with a bone marrow butter and served in a Rendalls Bakery brioche bun with classic burger relish, caramelised onions, rocket salad, homemade pepper mayonnaise sauce and homemade coleslaw.

Check out our full summer menu!

Nearby Locations

There are a range of nearby destinations to visit while you’re out at the Kirk Gallery & Café. Read on for our top four in order of distance from The Kirk.

1. Dingieshowe Beach

Just a 9-minute drive from The Kirk Gallery & Café, Dingieshowe Beach is part of a thin isthmus connecting the parishes of St Andrews and Deerness. This unique beach has an array of golden sand backed by beautiful dunes, and is a great location to stop and stretch your legs, with a small car park and public toilet also on location. 

2. Deerness Stores

If you're looking for a local shop to purchase some essentials, Deerness Stores is just a 12-minute drive from The Kirk Gallery & Café.

3. Deerness Distillery Ltd

One of the few self-built distilleries in the UK, the Deerness Distillery is a family-run, multi-award winning spirit and liqueur business. Just a 15-minute drive from The Kirk Gallery & Café, you can browse their range of collections within a carefully curated gift shop filled with a range of quality jewellery, art, and homewares. And if you are lucky enough, you might even see the production process in action! 

4. The Gloup, Mull Head Nature Reserve and The Brough of Deerness

If you'd like to stretch your legs after visiting The Kirk Gallery & Café, The Gloup, Mull Head Nature Reserve and Brough of Deerness is the perfect place to visit! Just a 17-minute drive away, The Gloup, a dramatic collapsed sea-cave separated from sea by a land bridge, is part of the Mull Head Nature Reserve - a perfect place for walking, bird-watching and studying nature. The Brough of Deerness, a small outcrop of rock housing the remains of a Norse settlement and church, is just a short walk away too.

If you'd like to find more things to do nearby The Kirk Gallery & Café, check out the Orkney.com information page on the East Mainland. 

We would highly recommend booking any cafés, restaurants and locations you plan to visit during Orkney's busy summer months.

To avoid disappointment or a potentially long wait, we highly recommend booking a table in the Kirk Café before you visit.