Orkney & Canada: A Story Woven Across the Atlantic
For centuries, the Orkney Islands and Canada have shared a remarkable connection built on seafaring, resilience and opportunity.
Long before modern travel, the link between Stromness and Canada was firmly established through the Hudson's Bay Company. From the early 1700s, the company’s ships regularly called into Stromness for supplies – and, crucially, to recruit labour. The “Nor’Wast men” of Orkney became the backbone of the company’s Canadian operations.
By the late eighteenth century, this relationship was extraordinary in scale. In 1799, of the 530 men working in Hudson’s Bay Company posts across North America, 416 were from Orkney. At one point, around three-quarters of the company’s Canadian workforce were Orcadians.
For island communities, this provided vital employment. For Canada, it meant that Orkney was woven into the foundations of early trade and exploration.
Stromness: A Port with Global Reach
Ships bound for Canada watered and restocked in Stromness well into the early 1900s. At the southern end of the town’s winding main street sits Login’s Well – once a crucial water source for visiting vessels. A nearby stone records that water from this well supplied the ships of Captain Cook and Sir John Franklin, as well as Hudson’s Bay Company vessels making their Atlantic crossings.
Today, that history remains visible throughout the town – not least in the statue of Arctic explorer John Rae, born in Orkney and famed for his work in the Canadian Arctic. His legacy stands as a reminder of the deep, enduring ties between these distant shores.
You can read more about the Nor’Wast men and Orkney’s Canadian connections via NorthLink Ferries’ Orkney blog.
A Modern Connection: From Orkney to Canada
The historic links continue in different ways today.
As a fourth-generation, family-owned bakery, Stockan’s is proud of its Orkney heritage and global reach. Our oatcakes are all made in Stromness using wholegrain oats and fresh island water. They can then travel far beyond our shores and for our Canadian sales we work closely with our wholesale distributor Morgan Williams International. Our Thin Oatcakes are available in bilingual packaging, reflecting the country’s English and French heritage, with many other varieties also available.
While trade routes have changed, the spirit of connection remains. From the Nor’Wast men who crossed the Atlantic in the 1700s to modern exports travelling from our bakery in Stromness, Orkney’s relationship with Canada continues to evolve – built on heritage, quality and shared history.
From Stromness to Canada – a story more than 300 years in the making.
