There is a short window after someone moves house when a gift really lands – the boxes are half unpacked, the kettle has been located, and the place is still deciding what it wants to be. Scottish island gifts for a new home fill that window with things made by people who know what makes a house feel warm, because in the islands you spend a fair chunk of the year indoors while the weather does its worst outside.
Seven picks below from seven makers in seven islands – Shetland, South Uist, Orkney, Lismore, Arran, Bute and Coll. There is a candle named after the northern lights, a breakfast board with a story behind it, an oak sign carrying the classic Scottish housewarming blessing, and a sheepskin ready to claim the best chair. Prices run from £12.50 to £80, and every order is packed and posted by the maker themselves.
The usual note – parcels leave the islands by ferry, so allow a wee bit of extra time if the housewarming has a date on it.
Mirrie Dancers Hand-Poured Soy Candle – £12.50
Jade Crafts Shetland, Shetland
Mirrie Dancers is what Shetlanders call the northern lights, and this hand-poured soy candle borrows their shimmering greens, blues and purples for the artwork on its tin. The scent is sage and sea salt – fresh coastal notes with a soft herbal warmth behind them – and the natural soy wax gives a clean, even burn. The tin is reusable once the candle is spent, which suits a household still collecting useful containers. A fine first lamp-lighting for dark evenings in a new place.
Handcrafted Reclaimed Hardwood Breakfast Board – £20
Bùth ReStore, South Uist
Made from reclaimed hardwood by the learners and volunteers at Cothrom, a social enterprise in the Isle of South Uist, so every board sends support straight back into island skills training. It comes with its own stand, carries a Gaelic word as a reminder of where it came from, and the makers suggest loading it with toast, pastries, cheese or a full Scottish breakfast. Old wood given new life, for a house getting one too. Sizes vary a little from piece to piece, each one being handmade.
Ocean Coaster – £20
Flow Glass, Orkney
Flow Glass make this coaster in their Kirkwall studio with real sand from Scapa beach fused between two sheets of glass, so a small piece of Orkney shoreline ends up under the new householder’s mug. Coloured glass frit builds up the movement of sea over sand in a shallow bay. It measures 10cm square, has silicone feet to spare the new table, and arrives in a white organza gift bag ready to hand over.
Rock Salt & Driftwood White Reed Diffuser – £22
Lismore Luminations, Isle of Lismore
A white glass diffuser with reeds in Lismore Luminations’ Rock Salt and Driftwood fragrance – refreshing seaweed up front, earthy driftwood underneath, blended to call up the shoreline of Lismore itself, where the maker pours every batch. There is no flame involved, so it can quietly scent a hallway or bathroom unattended. It arrives in a gift box, which saves you the wrapping.
Scottish Sayings – Lang May Yer Lum Reek – £33
Honest Coffins, Isle of Arran
Lang may yer lum reek – long may your chimney smoke – is the traditional Scottish blessing for a new home, which makes this the most fitting gift in the list. Honest Coffins in the Isle of Arran engrave the saying into oak taken from a Lagg Distillery whisky barrel, so the wood had a previous career soaking up spirit. It measures roughly 40cm across, comes drilled for screws or ready to hang like a picture, and every piece varies with the grain. If you buy one thing for a housewarming, there is a strong case it should be this.
Primary Broad Stripe Bute Fabrics Cushion – £50
Myler Decor, Isle of Bute
A 19-inch cushion in Bute Fabrics cloth from Myler Decor in the Isle of Bute, in bright primary-coloured broad stripes – running vertical on one side and horizontal on the other, so it flips to suit the mood of the room. It comes filled with a generous 20-inch hollow fibre pad, which is the trick to a properly plump cushion, and closes with a green zip. For a new living room still finding its colour scheme, this one makes the decision for it.
Hebridean Sheepskin Rug – £80
Coll Hebridean Wool, Isle of Coll
From the maker’s own flock of rare-breed Hebridean sheep in the Isle of Coll. Hebrideans carry a naturally dark fleece, so the rich chocolate brown comes straight off the sheep with no dyeing involved, and the fleece is known for being unusually soft and dense. Lay it over an armchair, at a bedside or in front of the fire – wherever the new house needs its first properly cosy corner. Every skin varies in size, shape and shade, so no two rugs match.
Lang may their lum reek
Every one of these comes from a small island workshop, and each order lands directly with an island business – a bit of a housewarming for the makers too, in its way. There is plenty more for the house in our homeware collection.
If the sheepskin has you curious about its home island, the Isle of Coll page gathers everything made there, and the earlier gifts from Orkney guide has more from Flow Glass’s neighbours.
Happy flitting, and lang may yer lum reek.
