Stromness

Stromness is the second largest town in the archipelago of the Orkney Islands situated off the North coast of Scotland. The distinctive architectural character of Stromness with its attractive small piers and slips, stone houses with paved twisting streets form the Outstanding Conservation Area and will delight any visitor to the town.

Stromness has been a favoured port of call for centuries, ever since the Vikings visited its sheltered bay and gave it the name "Hamnavoe". The harbour has always played a major part in the life of the town for centuries, the vessels of the Hudson Bay company and the whaling fleets were regular visitors and the town became an important centre for recruiting crewmen.

Stromness has one of Orkneys best natural harbours and is home to the main car/passenger ferry linking Orkney with the Scottish mainland. If like most visitors, you sail into Orkney, Stromness will be your first port of call, you will be greeted by a view that has met seafarers for centuries.

Business

Stromness like most small communities have suffered over the years from government restructuring and centralisation but we can still offer an expansive variety of businesses as can be seen from our members list. Over the years we have had some notable business people in our town.
According to Scots Law only royal burghs could engage in foreign trade, so the Royal Burgh of Kirkwall ended up paying the share of the tax. In 1719 an unpopular arrangement was made for Stromness merchants to contribute by means of payments to Kirkwall. These payments continued for over twenty years until in 1742, shortly before his death, Stromness merchant John Johnston refused to pay. Johnston's refusal set in motion a campaign of non-payment and in 1743 a number of traders carried on this action. The merchants were sued and the case went against them. However an appeal was sought and following expensive litigation the case went to the House of Lords. The Stromness men won their case but the action had a dire price. The leader of the merchants, Mr Alexander Graham, was left financially ruined. There is a memorial to Mr Alexander Graham situated at the pier head in the town and this determined spirit still unites the business community to this day.

In 1817, Stromness became a Burgh of Barony and as such was entitled to attract trade by holding a weekly market and an annual fair. Forty years later the Burgh adopted the Police Act which empowered the town council to levy rates. The streets of Stromness were paved, named and lit by flickering oil-lamps.

Diversity

Today Stromness and S.C.B.F members offer a wealth of new and traditional businesses and business opportunities and is at the forefront within the U.K of developing new renewable sources of energy including wave and wind power. Our membership also includes businesses associated with this new form of energy, environmental consultants, web site and graphic designers along with a branch of Heriot Watt University offering students MSc courses on marine resource management and environmental economics.

Stromness also has an array of more traditional businesses, retail shops, bakery, restaurants, clothing manufacture, galleries, banking, accommodation, boat builder, building contractors to mention a few, and most notably we also have three of Orkney's top food exporters who are constantly expanding into new markets and whose products can be found in most good food stores around the world.

The S.C.B.F and the Stromness community actively encourage any new businesses to the town so if your business is thinking to relocate we would encourage you to view what our town has to offer, we already have businesses operating from Stromness with offices in London and other major cities, with e-commerce no longer a thing of the future Stromness could be the future for you.

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