Welcome to stronsay arts and crafts

A shop for islanders and island visitors

Summer: from April

12.00 - 17.30 every day except Monday.

Winter: from September

12.00 - 17.30  Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Out of hours or online purchase enquiries are welcome by phone or email as I can accept Paypal or card payments.

Please email me This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for further information.

Thank you.

Stronsay is one of the most beautiful North Isles of Orkney, a good ninety-minute ferry ride from the Mainland, or a short flight.

The island is about 7 miles long and 6 miles wide at its greatest extent but with sweeping sandy bays and some dramatic cliffs it can appear like islands joined by spits of land.

There are over 350 residents, not all of them farming folk but many keeping important services running through part-time employment. 

Clifton is a large house with railings around the front garden with a rather impractical north facing bay window looking towards the sea. It’s not the usual Orkney style of house, but it is fairly typical of the big houses in Whitehall village that were built around the natural harbour with some of the wealth from the herring fishing industry.

The first resident, in 1911, was William Smith Inkster, Clerk of Works for the West Pier that was built almost directly opposite the house.

From 1979 until 1988, Thomas Anderson Shearer and Barbara Shearer owned the house. Thomas Shearer was a renowned weaver and used the part of the building now my shop, as his weaving shop. His life and work was featured in More Old Orkney Trades edited by Sheila Spence – published by The Orkney Press (1996)

So crafts are not new to Clifton – it has a good pedigree.

More information about Stronsay can be found here using Wikipedia, the free encylopedia.