Scottish coffee roasters: every independent roastery in Scotland, mapped

Coffee roasters in Glasgow

Glasgow has the deepest coffee heritage in Scotland – Thomsons has been roasting here since 1841 – alongside one of the liveliest speciality coffee scenes anywhere in the UK. They are spread right across the city, from Finnieston and the West End out to Bridgeton in the east, with a couple more down in the southside.

• Dear Green Coffee Roasters, Bridgeton, Glasgow – B Corp roastery, showroom and training space in the East End, founded in 2011 by Lisa Lawson. They run the Glasgow Coffee Festival.
• Thomsons Coffee Roasters, Giffnock, Glasgow – Scotland’s oldest coffee roaster, founded in Edinburgh in 1841. Over 20 roasts on the go, plus cafés in Glasgow, Ayr, Edinburgh and Troon.
• Papercup Coffee Company, West End, Glasgow – Roasting since 2012 in the old Rusty Zip vintage shop. Great coffee, better brunch. Second café in Motherwell.
• The Good Coffee Cartel, Kinning Park, Glasgow – Southside roastery and café. Wholesale in reusable buckets, retail in refillable cans – the sustainability thinking is properly worked through.
• The Steamie Coffee Roasters, Finnieston, Glasgow – Named after the old Glasgow wash-houses, and going for the same feeling. The Tenement Blend is the house coffee.
• Glesga Roasters, Bishopbriggs, Glasgow – Run as an initiative of Bishopbriggs Community Church, trading direct with Rwandan cooperatives and built around rehabilitation and employability.
• Grain and Grind, Glasgow & Inverness – Eight cafés across Glasgow and Inverness, roasting since 2018. Try the Roaster’s Choice bundle.
• Gordon Street Coffee, Glasgow & Edinburgh – Founded 2014, with cafés and roasteries in both cities – one of the few Scottish roasters operating properly in each.
• Pure Roasters, Glasgow – Ethical Scottish coffee roasted in Glasgow, supplying subscriptions, trade accounts and machinery.
• Faodail Roastery, Glasgow – Small-batch and fully traceable single origins, cupped after every roast. The name is Gaelic for a lucky find.
• Ovenbird Coffee Roasters, Glasgow – Founded in 2013 by Davide Angeletti, roasting on open flame without computers. Their whisky barrel range is aged in empty Auchentoshan and Laphroaig casks.
• Naked Roaster Coffee, Glasgow – An online-only Glasgow roaster with no shop, which keeps the prices down. Everything roasted to order, and Gordon may well deliver it by bike.

Coffee roasters near Glasgow: Paisley, Kirkintilloch and East Kilbride

Paisley has two roasteries about a mile apart, and there is more going on in Kirkintilloch to the north and East Kilbride to the south. All three towns are a short run from the city centre, so they are easy to fold into a day that starts in Glasgow.

• Dnisi, Kirkintilloch – An independently owned Scottish family coffee and bakehouse brand founded in Kirkintilloch in 2004, now with shops across the country.
• We Love Coffee, East Kilbride – Low-emissions convection roasting, with around 70% of suppliers within 50 miles. Sacks and chaff get reused rather than binned.
• Rise & Grind Roastery, Paisley – Direct trade, bought straight from farms where they can. Barista workshops if you want to get properly into it.
• The Gatehouse Coffee Roasters, Paisley – Family-run, working with responsibly sourced single origins roasted to bring out each coffee’s character.
• We Are Coffee Co, Clydebank – Small-batch roasted in Clydebank, with speciality single origins scored SCA 84+ and a SALSA-certified roastery.

Coffee roasters in Edinburgh

Edinburgh has more roasteries than anywhere else in Scotland. Stockbridge, Leith, Bruntsfield and the Old Town each have their own cluster, and you can comfortably visit three or four in an afternoon on foot.

• Artisan Roast, Edinburgh – Scotland’s first speciality coffee roaster, roasting since 2007, with four cafés across the city. Beans roasted around three times a week.
• Machina Coffee, Peffermill, Edinburgh – Founded in 2013 by an ex-DJ and record label A&R man; roasting since 2017. Also one of the best places in Britain to buy home espresso kit.
• Fortitude Coffee, Stockbridge & Abbeyhill, Edinburgh – Two cafés and a small, well-curated bean list. The curated subscription sends coffees you can’t buy in the shop.
• Obadiah Coffee, Abbeyhill, Edinburgh – In a railway arch under the Borders line. The nerdy end of the Edinburgh scene, in the best sense – light, expressive roasts and unusual origins.
• Williams & Johnson Coffee Co., Leith, Edinburgh – Roasting on a single machine down at the Shore, with a café, bakery and art space attached. Excellent batch brew.
• mr eion, Stockbridge & Trinity, Edinburgh – Beans weighed and bagged in front of you, ground to your preference. Eion Henderson roasts on a bright blue Diedrich, often while the shop is open.
• Cult Coffee Roasters, Newington, Edinburgh – A Southside institution since 2014. Separate espresso and filter profiles, roasted by hand on a 6kg Giesen.
• Cairngorm Coffee, Edinburgh & Ralia, by Newtonmore – Started around a kitchen table in Newtonmore in 2014. Cafés in Edinburgh plus a roadside stop at Ralia on the A9.
• Edinburgh Tea & Coffee Co, Edinburgh – Origins tracing to Andrew Melrose’s tea importing in 1812. Still roasts on a 50-year-old Probat, operated by hand and by eye.
• Uplands Roast, The Meadows, Edinburgh – A speciality roastery focused entirely on Vietnamese coffee, roasting in the open air at a cabin on the edge of the Meadows.
• Forth Coffee Roasters, Edinburgh – An artisan roaster supplying cafés, restaurants and hotels, with an online shop and subscription alongside.
• Cobbled Roaster, Edinburgh – Freshly roasted single-origin coffees, mostly supplied to the trade.
• Terra Coffee, Leith, Edinburgh – A Leith artisan roaster with an online shop, wholesale and a decaf in the range.
• The Source Coffee, Old Town, Edinburgh – A coffee bar in the Old Town, just up from the Grassmarket, with their own roasted range.
• Otis & Carter Coffee, Edinburgh – A small-batch brand roasted in Edinburgh, built around the idea of progress and trying things properly.
• Common Coffee, Edinburgh – Flavour-led, jargon-free coffee. The whole approach is about making speciality less intimidating.
• Spaceboy Coffee, Edinburgh – Founded in 2021 by award-winning roaster Finn Mclean on a crowdfunded, hand-built machine. No coffee shop of their own – all the focus goes on the roasting.

Coffee roasters in the Lothians: Livingston, North Berwick and East Linton

Once you are past the bypass the roasteries spread out, and two of them are worth the drive on their own. Steampunk roasts in an old joinery warehouse behind North Berwick High Street, with a coffee bar where you can sit and watch it happen, and Hometown has the old mart buildings at East Linton. Inland, Livingston has two, and there is a micro-roastery on the southern edge of the city in Midlothian.

• Coffee Direct, Livingston, West Lothian – Jim Watson roasts here and runs the Scottish Barista Academy alongside it – the only place in the UK offering every level of SCA accreditation.
• Old Mill Coffee, Livingston, West Lothian – A small family business selling freshly roasted coffee by subscription, by the bag, or from a stall at local markets. Orders through Facebook.
• Steampunk Coffee Roasters, North Berwick, East Lothian – An old joinery warehouse with a vintage Probat in the corner. Founder Catherine Franks started out selling coffee from a 1976 VW camper. Easy by train from Waverley.
• Hometown Coffee Roasters, East Linton, East Lothian – Started in North Berwick in 2017 and now roasting at the old mart in East Linton, open to the public four days a week for coffee, cake and the full retail range.
• Proud Coffee Roasters, Midlothian – Andrew’s micro-roastery on the southern edge of Edinburgh, roasting in 900g batches. The bean list rotates deliberately. Online only.

Coffee roasters in Fife

Three roasteries in the Kingdom, including a Sydney-trained roaster who proved people would drive to the Black Isle for good coffee before moving production to a Fife estate.

• Modern Standard Coffee, Glenrothes, Fife – Diedrich roasters from 2.5kg to 70kg. Visit the roastery shop for advice on what’s in season and tasting good right now.
• The Roasting Project, Kirkcaldy, Fife – Started in a coffee house in Burntisland in 2018, now in a purpose-built roastery in Kirkcaldy. The Burntisland coffee house is still there, and you can watch the roastery at work.
• Vandyke Brothers, Balcaskie, Fife – Tony Vandyke opened Slaughterhouse Coffee in Cromarty in 2014; the production roastery moved to Balcaskie in 2024. Multiple Great Taste awards including a 3-star.

Coffee roasters in Perthshire & Kinross

Four roasteries in the middle of the country, including one that started in a bothy at the top of Glen Lyon and is now B Corp certified.

• Glen Lyon Coffee Roasters, Aberfeldy, Perthshire – Started in a bothy at the top of Glen Lyon in 2011. B Corp certified and fully traceable – one of the Scottish roasters that walks the walk on sourcing.
• The Bean Shop, Perth – Roasting daily in the basement of their own shop since 2003, and selling online since 2004. Perth’s longest-standing independent coffee and tea shop.
• Unorthodox Roasters, Kinross & Stirling – Born out of a ten-month trip through Latin America. Cafés in Kinross and Stirling, coffee served in imported Japanese mugs.
• Birdie Coffee, Alyth, Perthshire – A small-batch roaster in rural Perthshire, born from stovetop roasting experiments after a trip to Papua New Guinea.

Coffee roasters in Stirling, Clackmannanshire & Loch Lomond

A family coffee lineage going back to the 1800s, a roastery on a working farm that opens at weekends, and the first roaster on Loch Lomond.

• Stirling Coffee, Stirling – Roastery, café, bean shop, tea shop and ice-cream shop all in one, working only with beans graded 83 or above.
• Alfie & Co Coffee Roasters, Killearn, Stirlingshire – A family coffee lineage going back to the 1800s. Paul Equi learned to roast alongside his grandfather Alfie, and some of those recipes are still in the range.
• Ochils Coffee Roastery, Dollar, Clackmannanshire – Started in 2022 by Stevie after 30 years as an NHS nurse. Coffees named after the Ochil Hills above the roastery. Open to visitors at weekends, dogs welcome.
• Loch Lomond Coffee, Balmaha, Loch Lomond – The first coffee roaster on the loch. Spent grounds fuel the biomass heating at Balmaha and deliveries go out in solar-charged electric vehicles.

Coffee roasters in Dundee & Angus

Four roasteries along the Tay and the Angus coast, one of them roasting on a machine they bought rather than let leave the country.

• Brewery Lane Coffee Roasters, Dundee – Dundee’s first speciality roaster, started after a decade in Wellington, New Zealand. The Dundee Blend is the flagship.
• Maison Dieu Coffee Roasters, Broughty Ferry, Dundee – An independent café roasting their own beans, with good vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free options alongside.
• Empire State Coffee, Dundee – Roasting its own blend on site in a little red roaster right by the counter – you can watch your coffee made from green bean onwards.
• Sacred Grounds Coffee Company, Arbroath, Angus – The first coffee roastery in Angus. They roast on Fatima, a genuine piece of Scottish coffee history bought rather than let leave the country.

Coffee roasters in Aberdeen & Aberdeenshire

The north east has an unusual set of founder stories – an oil and gas leaver, a former British Army officer and a Sydney-trained roaster all set up here within five years of each other.

• MacBeans Coffee, Aberdeen city centre – Roasting in Aberdeen since 1989 – one of the longest-established independents in Scotland and the granddaddy of the region’s coffee scene.
• Figment Coffee, Aberdeen – Founded by Neil Glover, who left oil and gas after an encounter with speciality coffee changed his mind about everything.
• Roaring Stag Coffee, Ballater, Royal Deeside – A husband-and-wife roastery in the Cairngorms, with roasts named for the landscape – Lochnagar, Cairngorm, Ben Macdui, Ballater.
• Bennachie Coffee Roasters, Banchory, Aberdeenshire – Family-owned since 2017, named after the hill range that dominates the skyline in this part of Aberdeenshire.
• Morning Dog Coffee, Aboyne, Aberdeenshire – Founded in 2018 on Royal Deeside. Three signature Arabica blends and a lot of support for their trade customers.

Coffee roasters in Moray & Speyside

Two on the Moray coast, one of them doing whisky-cask-aged beans, which in Speyside feels entirely right.

• Speyside Coffee Roasting Co., Garmouth, Moray – Started in the old games room of the Garmouth Hotel, now in Kirk Cottage with a café attached. They do whisky-cask-aged beans.
• Melco Coffee Roasters, Moray Coast – A Moray coast roastery producing bright, flavour-forward roasts.

Coffee roasters in the Highlands

Seven roasteries spread across the north, including the most northerly on the mainland, one with an honesty box in a remote glen and one you can only reach by boat.

• Inverness Coffee Roasting Co., Inverness – A family-run roastery supplying cafés, hotels and shops across the Highlands. If you’ve had a good coffee in a Highland hotel, there’s a fair chance it was theirs.
• Caithness Coffee Company, Wick – Scotland’s most northerly mainland roastery. A changing guest coffee every month, and a shop-within-a-shop in Thurso as well as the Wick premises.
• Applecross Roastery, Applecross, Wester Ross – Over the Bealach na Bà on the North Coast 500, supplying the Applecross Inn and the campsite. One of the most remote roasteries in the country.
• Wester Ross Roasters, Loch Ewe, Wester Ross – A family-run micro roaster using only organic beans, buying from women coffee farmers where they can. About as far north west as roasting gets on the mainland.
• Coffee Knoydart, Knoydart – Roasting on Knoydart – reachable only by boat from Mallaig or an 18-mile walk over the hills. Probably the most committed coffee run in Scotland.
• Cairngorm Leaf and Bean, Grantown-on-Spey – A small artisan roastery working with 100% Arabica, online only, with a Mountain Water process decaf in the range.
• What’s Bean Grinding, Strathnaver – A one-man roastery deep in north Sutherland, with a Coffee Box at the roadside holding a fresh bag each week for passers-by.

Coffee roasters in Argyll & Bute

Four along the west coast and the islands, including one named after the legendary island Brendan the Navigator is said to have found.

• Argyll Coffee Roasters, Tighnabruaich, Argyll – Founded by Eve MacFarlane in 2018 on the Kyles of Bute. Their Clyde Steamer espresso blend is what put them on the map.
• Hinba Coffee Roasters, Isle of Seil & Oban – Founded on the Isle of Seil in 2019 and now eight sites, roasting 80-plus SCA-graded single origins. The Oban seafront café is the one to visit.
• Isle of Bute Coffee, Rothesay, Isle of Bute – Bute’s first speciality coffee shop and roastery. Drink it by the cup at their island coffee spot, Press, or have the beans posted. The ferry from Wemyss Bay takes 35 minutes.
• Campbell Coffee, Inveraray, Argyll – Hand-roasting on a 10kg Golden Roaster on the banks of Loch Fyne, with a Castle Blend sold exclusively at Inveraray Castle’s tearoom.

Coffee roasters in the Scottish Borders

Three in the Borders, and between them they cover air roasting, data-logged drum roasting and an SCA-accredited training lab.

• Luckie Beans, Galashiels – Family-run since 2015, roasting on a Giesen W15A with data logging on every batch, and using around 50% less gas than comparable roasters.
• Three Hills Coffee, Selkirk – Roastery, café and an SCA-accredited barista training lab, unusual for a rural roaster. House blends Eildon and Reiver, and the sourdough french toast is famous locally.
• Braw Beans, Peebles – One of a small number of UK roasters using air roasting – a fluid bed of hot air rather than a hot steel drum. Everything roasted to order.

Coffee roasters in Ayrshire

Two in Ayr, including the county’s first roastery and a whisky cask coffee smoked over Arran-soaked oak.

• Roundsquare Roastery, Ayr – Ayrshire’s first roastery, on a mission against dull, over-roasted coffee. They also make a whisky cask coffee smoked over Arran-soaked oak.
• Rocket Monkey Coffee, Ayr – A small-batch roastery and coffee house open seven days, roasting each origin to its own profile. Start with the Fuel Blend.

Coffee roasters in the Scottish islands

Some of the most remote roasteries in Britain are out here, from Shetland down to Mull, and they are worth seeking out.

• Stakkadale Coffee, Bigton, Shetland – Shetland’s only coffee roastery, bringing speciality coffee to the islands from a base in the South Mainland. Find them at the Bigton Collective.
• Isle of Mull Coffee Roasters, Tobermory, Isle of Mull – A woman-owned small-batch roastery in Tobermory. Their Ben Talla roast has a following, they run roasting experiences, and CalMac serve their coffee on the MV Isle of Mull.
• The Orkney Roastery, Kirkwall, Orkney – The first commercial roastery in Orkney. Their Aria brand takes its name from Bach’s Coffee Cantata, and every roast carries a musical name.
• Corran Coffee, Staffin, Isle of Skye – In the community-owned Staffin Harbour development, in the shadow of the Quiraing and a stone’s throw from the dinosaur footprints at An Corran beach.
• Birch Coffee Roasters, Portree, Isle of Skye – A speciality roastery and café inspired by the Melbourne scene, focused on coffee traceable right back to the grower.
• Skye Coffee Roasters, Isle of Skye – Drum-fired, hand-roasted coffee from Skye.
• SkyDancer, Lochboisdale, South Uist – An art café and roastery roasting in a small hand-made drum roaster and serving from a hand-built brewing machine.

Buying Scottish coffee: your questions answered

Not all roasteries are open to the public and several are on working farms or in private industrial units – check whether you can visit or buy on site before you set off. Nearly all of them will post beans anywhere in the UK.

Kate – Love from Scotland x

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