Step Into Orkney's Food Heritage
This historic baking event is a hands-on cultural experience that immerses you in the rich heritage of traditional food culture in Orkney. The event begins at the historic Barony Mill, Orkney’s last working watermill, where the ancient grain bere barley is still milled using traditional methods. Bere has sustained Orkney’s people and livestock for centuries—and it’s still at the heart of local food and folklore.
Along with Dr. Ragnhild Ljosland you’ll uncover the fascinating customs, beliefs, and healing traditions surrounding bere and food preparation. You’ll also visit a sacred healing well dedicated to Saint Magnus, and learn how bere, water, and other natural ingredients were once used in folk medicine and healing.
The event continues at Birsay Community Hall, where local chef Lorraine Johnston will guide you through a hands-on baking session. You’ll learn to make bere bannocks —a true taste of Orkney’s past. You will also learn how bere meal and oat meal were preserved through a pre-modern form of vacuum packing, and a traditional fermentation technique for oats, producing a delicious youghurt-like substance known to soothe the stomach - past practices we should take with us into a sustainable future.
3.00 pm - Meet at Barony Mill, Birsay. Visit nearby Saint Magnus Well, see bere barley fields, learn about traditional bere growing and harvest in old Orkney, customs, traditions and the role of bere and water both in everyday sustenance and in folk medicine.
3.30 - 4.15 - Tour of Barony Mill, a traditional water mill that is still operating.
4. 15 - 5.15 Baking workshop at Birsay Community Hall.
Ingredients for baking included
Ticket to mill tour included
Since this tour involves a third party (the mill) and we need to pay them for the tour included in this event's ticket price, we have a strict 24 hour cancellation policy. You can cancel your booking until the day before, but if the event starts in less than 24 hours we cannot refund your ticket.
We also reserve the right to cancel the event with minimum 24 hours notice in case of low ticket sales, or shorter notice if the mill is unexpectedly closed or in the case of illness of the chef. In these circumstances, you will receive a full refund.