Pubs in Kirkwall: Where to Drink and Eat in Orkney's Capital

What Kirkwall's pubs are actually like

Kirkwall is a small harbour town, and its pubs are sized to match: expect low ceilings, slate floors, wood panelling and rooms you settle into rather than move through. The setting does real work here, with the harbour and the town's Viking inheritance shaping both the look and the menu of the most characterful bar.

The drink leans heavily on Orkney. Malt lists matter more than cocktail menus, and Highland Park is distilled on the edge of town, so a dram here is a local product rather than an import. Food follows the same logic, with Orkney produce turning up in comfort dishes, smoked goods and butchery.

Menus change often, so Don't build a trip around one dish you saw online; the pubs themselves are the places to check for the day's offering. Our guide to the Best Restaurants in Kirkwall covers the wider eating picture if you want more than one course and a pint.

Helgi's on Harbour Street: the harbour-front Viking pub

Helgi's is a small pub and restaurant on Harbour Street looking over the harbour, with a slate floor and wood-panelled walls, and a look drawn from Orkney's Viking past. It opened in 2011 and is the obvious first stop for a visitor who wants a room with some character rather than a generic bar.

The ground-floor bar keeps draught and bottled beers, wines and spirits plus a strong run of malt whiskies, so it works as well for a single dram as for a full evening. The menu is home-cooked comfort food built on Orkney produce where possible, with coffee, tea and home bakes through the day, and it changes often.

Two trade-offs decide whether it suits you. It is over-18s only, which rules out bringing children, and the hours stretch long at the end of the week, running to 1am on Friday and Saturday. It opens daily from 11.45am, but Sunday is the exception, starting at 12.30pm, so a late Sunday lunch needs planning.

Upstairs there is space for parties of up to 22 at smaller tables, arranged in advance. That makes it a realistic option for a birthday or a group off the ferry, provided nobody is under 18 and you ring ahead rather than turning up as a crowd.

The Highland Park Bar at the Kirkwall Hotel: the whisky den

The Highland Park Bar sits inside the Kirkwall Hotel on Harbour Street and is built around a single distillery: the bar describes a range of more than 100 Highland Park whiskies, all distilled on the town's doorstep. Treat that count as the bar's own description rather than a fixed number you can rely on, and ask what is open when you arrive.

It is a tasting venue rather than a quick-pint pub. The bar publishes whisky flights grouped by age and vintage, plus its own themed selections, which suits someone who wants to compare drams side by side instead of ordering blind. There is a gin side too, with the bar describing around 70 gins and its own flights built around Orkney and island bottlings.

Hours are split rather than continuous, so a mid-afternoon walk-in may find the bar shut between lunch and evening service. The bar gives its opening times as 11am to 3pm and 5pm to 11pm daily, which makes it a better fit for a pre-dinner dram than a long afternoon session.

If you are staying in town, the Kirkwall Hotel itself has rooms, so the bar is a short walk from bed rather than a taxi ride. For more on where to start the day nearby, our breakfast in Kirkwall guide covers the morning end of the trip.

Matching the pub to the occasion

For a full meal with a pint and a malt in a room with some atmosphere, choose Helgi's, ideally early evening before the later crowd builds. For a birthday or a table of eight to Twenty-Two, ask about the upstairs space at Helgi's when you book, and be clear that the party is all adults.

For a serious whisky comparison with no meal attached, the Highland Park Bar is the better fit, and its flights do the choosing for you. If you want a single dram before dinner rather than a session, the 5pm to 11pm window is the one to aim at; a long lunchtime visit may leave you with a closed bar.

If your group spans ages, note that Helgi's is over-18s only, so a family group with teenagers should base itself elsewhere and split up rather than assume everyone gets in. That single rule is the most useful thing to know before promising a table to a mixed party.

If you want the wider picture of places to eat beyond these two bars, the Best Restaurants in Kirkwall guide is the natural next step, and it sits alongside What to Eat in Kirkwall in the same series for the dishes worth ordering once you are seated.

Practical points worth knowing before you go

Book ahead for groups, particularly for the upstairs space at Helgi's, and ring the venue directly for a party rather than relying on a web form. For the Highland Park Bar, reserve if you are a large table or want a flight laid on, and ask which drams are currently open.

Check the day's hours before you travel, since both places run different patterns by day and the bar's split hours catch people out. One check the week you go is enough; the pattern, rather than a minute-by-minute schedule, is what you are confirming.

Note the arrival logistics if you are coming off a ferry: Orkney's main routes land at Stromness and St Margaret's Hope, with onward travel by road to Kirkwall, so a drink on arrival usually means someone else driving or a night in town.

Where to carry on for Orkney drink and produce

The Orkney Distillery makes gin, whisky and rum on the Kirkwall harbour front, a short walk from both bars, so a distillery visit slots neatly into an afternoon. It is the obvious follow-on if the malts at Helgi's leave you curious about what else Orkney makes.

For the food side, Donaldsons of Orkney has supplied customers with locally sourced meat since 1955, and its Albert Street shop in Kirkwall is the place to pick up haggis, smoked salmon or something for self-catering. Knowing this makes sense of the phrase Orkney produce on a pub menu: it usually means local meat, smoked fish and bakery goods rather than a marketing line.

Highland Park Distillery is the natural companion to the bar named after it. If whisky is the point of the trip, our whisky Kirkwall guide goes deeper on where to taste.

Which Kirkwall pub should you book?

Book Helgi's if you want a harbour-side meal, a proper malt list and a room with some Viking character, and make it a table for adults only. Choose the Highland Park Bar if the whisky is the main event and you want flights rather than a full dinner.

If you only have one evening, start with an early meal at Helgi's and move to the Highland Park Bar for the 5pm to 11pm window, confirming both sets of hours the week you travel.