W.Hourston Jewellers is a family run business in the town centre of Kirkwall, Orkney.
We are delighted & very proud that Hourstons continues to be such a popular shop in Kirkwall, loved by both locals & tourists alike.
We enjoy sourcing Local, Scottish, UK & Worldwide companies for our jewellery, watch & gift store.
We reward customer loyalty, essential in a small island community. Our Loyalty Card Scheme began in 2011 & now has over 5,000 loyalty card holders. Each customer as important as the next.
Candice Shearer proudly became the new owner of W. Hourston Jewellers, 34 Albert Street in 2025 after working alongside the previous owners Tom & Alison MacPhail for 19 years.
Read on if you’d like to hear a little more detail about our store.
In the 17th century W Hourston Jewellers was a grand Town House owned by the Sinclairs of “Essenquoy” in Holm.
At the turn of the century it was a Drapers Shop and became the property of Mr William Hourston in the 1920’s trading jointly as a jewellers and optician business.
1960 Alison’s mum and dad (Bryan and Sheila Clark) bought W Hourstons. At that time they continued to jointly trade as a jeweller and optician business. Heating of the shop in those early days was simply by 2 coal fires lit by staff every morning, imagine the dust!
By 1960 and 1970 the shop area was gradually modernised and extended to include the front arcade. The present iron gates used to be wooden doors which directly accessed into the shop with the shop floor area running to the foot of the present stairs.
This picture shows the large wooden shutters & entrance doors to Hourstons.
In 1968 there was a small fire in the building which caused considerable smoke damage to some stock.
1970 the optician business moved to Mounthoolie Lane and all of the building at 34 Albert Street became used for jewellery and gifts.
1991 Tom & Aly returned to Orkney and jointly ran the business until 1995 where they were in sole control. After 33 years in business they sold W. Hourston to their manageress Candice Shearer.
August 1998 Tom & Aly also purchased the business of Christine Clarke’s to discover that when W Hourston’s first opened as a business, in 1844, they traded from that same property at 57 Albert Street. What a coincidence! This shop is now called Starlings!
In 2000, the decision was made to completely refurbish Hourstons by installing new display units & lighting whilst being sympathetic to its beautiful wood interior.
In 2020, W. Hourstons celebrated 60 years of being a family run business and 100 years as a jewellers on Kirkwall High Street.