Portree’s Birch Ranked 50th in World’s 100 Best Coffee Shops
Written by MartyM on 17 February 2026
By Jamie McDonald
Local speciality coffee business gains global recognition
Birch, which has a café in Portree and another in Inverness, has been ranked in the World’s 100 Best Coffee Shops 2026, placing at number 50.
The awards were announced at CoffeeFest in Madrid – one of Europe’s largest coffee events. Birch was one of just two UK coffee shops to make the global top 100 list this year.
The recognition follows the company’s recent inclusion in the Best Coffee Shops UK 2025 list.
Birch was founded in 2020 by Skye local, Niall Munro. Inspired by trips to Melbourne, he set out to recreate the city’s café culture in his hometown, using locally sourced produce from the Highlands and Islands and roasting coffee on Skye itself.
Speaking after the announcement, Mr Munro said the recognition “means the absolute world to us”.
“Since day one, Birch has been an absolute labour of love, and that’s always been at the forefront of everything we do,” he said.
“We’ve worked really hard over the last five years to create a unique experience at Birch – through our Isle of Skye roasted coffee, our curated pour over menus, speciality house-made Viennoiserie and our delicious brunch, made with ingredients from our home here in Skye. I’m so proud of the whole team who have made this possible.”
To compile the World’s 100 Best Coffee Shops list, 15,000 coffee shops worldwide were nominated. The public then voted for their favourites, with those scores combined with assessments from a panel of 800 judges. The final rankings were based on the highest combined public and expert scores.
