Honesty Boxes of the Scottish Islands

Last week saw the final episode of current series of the Ann Cleaves inspired drama Shetland. Never mind who dunnit? and the cries of Shetlanders everywhere saying there’s no way you can get from Fair Isle to a crime scene THAT quickly, the MOST important question was… is the Cake Fridge real?

First of all, YES, it’s real and the best thing – it’s not the only one! The internet was set alight with #cakefridge trending on Twitter! Shetland has lots of cake fridges and honesty boxes offering everything from cakes to mussels, books and cds, soaps and of course eggs.

It got me thinking about all the amazing honesty boxes you can find around all the Scottish islands. We’ve always had them in the islands but during lockdown honesty boxes really came into their own. They were a way to shop at a social distance on your daily exercise, a way to support small businesses and even a place to leave mystery gifts and cards with motivational messages to get us through the tough lockdown times, and thankfully they have remained.

We have been looking around and have found some of the most AMAZING honesty boxes around, here’s just a few: 

Shetland  – The home of the Cake Fridge, there’s actually more than one, some catering for vegans and others offering other foodie delights…..mussels, mint areo rocky road, and tablet. There is even one which sells books of fiddle tunes, CDs and eggs and when you press a button inside it plays a tune ‘Hens Marching Ower da Midden’ very apt! You can find that one in Uyeasound in Unst where you can also find a rock and meteorite honesty box, YES, you read that right! Unst is a geologists paradise after all, and the metorites….well there aren’t an abundance of them but if you want a piece of one you now know where to go. 

Orkney – The Little Yellow Hut, Birsay, is the honesty box of JP Orkney where you can buy many of the delicious delights only with stunning vistas! A favourite of locals and visitors is the rhubarb and raspberry jam, the rhubarb that goes into many of their lovely products can be seen growing in that garden that hoses the box! Not many food miles there! If you can’t visit Orkney don’t worry, take a look at the JP Orkney isle20shop 

Isle of Harris, Outer Hebrides – MustHeb. Based in the south of Harris Hebridean Mustard has been making delicious mustards since 2017, if you can’t get to the cute MustHeb shed you can buy Hebridean Mustard HERE and remember what REAL mustard tastes like! 

The Dutch Bakery, Point, Isle of Lismore – What can be better than an honesty box in an old red phone box! The cakes on offer here look AMAZING! AND there are guide books for sale too – educational and delicious! To find out more visit The Dutch Oven

Pickleberry Pop Up – Isle of Lewis. Heather has a small pop-up shop with a selection of her embroidered and laser cut products. Heather also has an isle20 shop take a look here PickleBerry Studio at isle20 

Isle of Skye – Donnie’s Tablet Shed. Is this not the cutest wee shed you’ve ever seen? Not only that you can buy THE tastiest tablet there! If you would like to try some of Donnie’s tablet you don’t have to go to Skye – you can visit his isle20shop – Donnie’s Tablet Shed instead!

 So there you have it – just a few of the awesome honesty boxes dotted round the Scottish islands. And if you can’t make it to them in person right now, here are a few of the products Donnie, JP Orkney and Pickleberry Studios sell in their isle20 shops.