Leakey’s Bookshop and Cafe

It’s an experience.
Everyone whispers as if the piles of books are listening. They’re all positive.
I snaked a 100+ year old copy of «Through the Looking Glass.» I could spend hours in there, drawing, and hoping to soak up some of the spirits.
Really amazing.

Just an FYI to anyone who is looking at this place — the café portion closed in Summer 2014. Bookstore is still hopping. We just visited there today!

There’s not really more I can add from what the other Unilocalers have said.
Leakey’s is a pretty amazing bookshop to step into. Although there doesn’t appear to be a café any longer, this is a place you could spend a good amount of time whiling away a good chunk of the day.
There’s just something so romantic about the place with stacks of books, winding staircases and that smell.
After a good old nosey around I couldn’t actually find anything I wanted in the fiction section (who am I kidding, Fiction Floor). Even some of the old favourites were lacking from the shelves.
On the upper floors there are some fantastic prints of Maps, churches, flowers and animals in card frames. Most of these had a little sticker on the corner verifying them as ‘guaranteed over 100 years old’. Regardless of the legitimacy of these, and not seeing any books I wanted to read I purchased a lovely drawing of a Blue Tit for around a tenner for my dad.
I couldn’t leave without buying something. It’s so important to support these wonderful independent places so they can keep on keeping on.

I’d love to return to Leakey’s once their café is back up and running, as I could easily see myself just immersing myself in a great book and fall asleep reading it in one of their delightfully chintzy armchairs…
Absolutely overwhelming selection of second-​hand and rare 1^st edition books; Kris B. and I literally spent an hour just perusing the shelves and admiring the many books, whilst being warmed by the open fire in the middle of the floor (this should probably be a fire hazard, but manages somehow not to be — go figure.).
Even if you’re not a fan of books, go and admire the architecture; it is a rather impressive use of such an elegant space that you can’t help but enjoy it. Get in there!

5 stars for all the books and the idea! the menu is okish, nothing special. the books an the venue are great though ;)

Take a look at the pictures and you’ll see why Leakey’s has such a following.
When you enter your mind can not get to grips with the sheer volume of books around you. Many are piled, all higgeldy piggeldy, around a man sitting behind a counter. Near him is a huge wood burning stove surrounded by logs. The immediate surroundings are shelves upon shelves of books divided by subject.
Ahead is a black spiral staircase which leads up the café. The birdseye view of the shop you get from the café is slightly less overwhelming but really gives you an indication of the vastness of this book collection. From this point you also get a great look at the stained glass windows.
We had coffees, which were acceptable, and the staff were lovely and very accommodating to everyone who popped in. The special of the day was a mackerel salad which looked bright and tasty.
After my coffee I went for a looksie around the prints section. The prints seem to be mainly hand printed, hand coloured pages from old books which could possibly not be restored. They run from £8−50 and many have a sticker ‘guaranteeing’ them to be over 100 years old.
I don’t know if it’s the concept (giant church becomes second hand book shop/​super cool café) or the novelty (oh my goodness! all the books) that I like the most but I definitely enjoyed the hour we spent in here.

Bookshops are pretty antiquated this day and age, but Leakey’s reminds us of a time when bookshops were hip. During a short visit to Inverness, I practically ran here before it closed for the day just to experience the hype, and it was worth every stride. As you enter the shop, your eyes go a little berserk as your tiny human brain cannot process the share volume of books occupying every nook. As I am a more visual person, my favorite section was the vintage prints and maps located both downstairs and upstairs. Even though spiral staircases in Chinese Fung Shui is a deadly sin, the black spiral staircase in the middle of the shop only added some extra splash of spunk. LOVED everything about Leakey’s.

What was only meant to be a wee zip-​in, zip-​out bathroom break while passing through Inverness turned into a bigger last-​second change of schedule and canceling other plans to spend a few more hours in Leakey’s. Absolutely no regrets.
° Books? Oooooh yes, please.
° Second-​hand books? All the better!
° Fresh, made-​from-​scratch food in the bookstore café?! Sod the Aberdeen dinner plans — we’re staying here for a bite!
° All those shelves! Ooooh, look at the woodstove! Pop more coins in the meter — it’ll be awhile :)
It’s just so lovely to simply BE in the shop and take it all in. All those words in all those books, which were once owned by someone else, whose pages were once turned by the hands of fore-​readers, having traveled who knows where and all over to eventually land here, waiting hopefully, ever-​patiently to find new owners, new homes. Who knows what the history of each used book is, the story behind the story behind the book’s own story… nothing like a darn fine used bookstore to get a sentimental turn out of me. Oh but *this* one, *this* particular bookstore is epic and wonderful — is alone worth the repeated drive up to Inverness to spend a few happy hours, whether purposefully or merely in passing.
How we hadn’t heard of Leakey’s before, I’ve no idea. How we’ve never been, despite passing through this part of Inverness several times, a near scandal! Here’s to having put a final end to such silliness!

What a fantastic used bookshop and café! It’s housed in an old Gaelic church that was refurbished in 1793 (!!) You read that right…1793! It boasts that it’s the largest 2^nd hand bookshop in all of Scotland — and boy does it look it! You really could get lost for hours upon hours here. I certainly wish we had more time in Inverness just to visit this place alone.
The café is up a spiral staircase overlooking the bookshop. Great daily specials, sandwiches, soup, desserts, coffee and free WiFi (ask for the password). The café is open 10am-4:30pm. We enjoyed all of our food — just like homemade… only better!
This was the perfect Inverness lunch stop for us. Old books and a café, who could ask for more? So very glad we happened upon you!

If only all bookshops were like Leakey’s. You can settle in for the day, keep warm, eat, read, talk, and browse the amazing range of stock. Even buy! Charles Leakey observes the ancient and critical rules which used to be displayed in Blackwell’s, before they went over to footage when you come to Leakey’s, as once you did to Blackwell’s, no-​one will bother you unless you ask. And the ambience is still pretty much as Thornton’s once was, but with the advantage of the spiral ascent to a good café and more books. Typical of Inverness to greet the establishment of a full-​blown University by losing not just one bookshop but two and allowing the survivor to retreat from the High Street to its dreadful Eastgate Centre. It should make amends by placing a preservation order on Leakey’s now. It is going to need it.

A lot of people seem to love this place but it just feels a little haphazard and unorganised. As secondhand bookshops go it isn’t really up to the standard of some notable (all be it much further away) others.

What a fabulous place!
These places are so rare these days.
Great place to look for treasure in the book department.

One of the few places left in Inverness which has withstood the vast changes seen since we first came to the area in the 70s is Leakies Bookshop and Café.
We live nearly 100 miles further north from Inverness so when we go shopping in ‘town’ we have already driven for 2 hours and ready for lunch.
Leakies is different to other cafes in that it is first and foremost a second-​hand bookshop, with huge bookshelves full of all manner of adventure and secrets bound up in leather or paperback.
As a matter of fact, I have been known to arrive in Inverness, pop into Leakies for lunch and stay for hours — only remembering that I came for ‘shopping’ hours ago and have to dash round the town shops before they close!
The café is situated upstairs, reached by a winding staircase. Soups, quiche, salads and sandwiches are the staples and very nice they are too. Not very expensive either.
In the winter, there is a roaring log fire situated slap-​bang in the middle of the bookshop with nice big leather chairs arranged quite handily close by. If I lived in Inverness, I doubt I’d never be out of the place.
We now have Borders in Inverness where you can grab a coffee and sandwich from upstairs — but it pales in comparison to Leakies.
Highly recommended for an unusual dining experience!

Great place to spend a wet afternoon, never know what you will find. Nice café upstairs if you fancy a quick lunch or coffee.

this is my favourite book shop in inverness. it is located in the up and coming but actually still dreary old town part of the city. there is a roaring fire every day which is great for a heat. i haven’t sold them any books — i tend to give them to charity shops, but i have bought a ferw books and had lunch on numerous occasions. the books are mostly second hand but not all are cheap — they aren’t given away but there are some great bargains to be had. there are photos, prints and maps also available to buy. it can feel quite imposing when you go in as there are gazillions of books in the place, but they are well catalogued and it is easy to find what you are looking for. there is an upper level where there is a little tea room/​café. they do meals and light lunches — soup and sandwiches or a salad sort of a deal. the food is well priced and is a great place to spend an hour just taking in the atmosphere of this fine grand old building. well worth a visit

It’s an amazing place if you love books! He buys and sells books — speicialising in old, collectable scottish books.
Leakeys is the perfect place to spend an afternoon on a cold winter’s day. The romance of building is astounding.
The upstairs café is also magic. The salads are fantastic — the salad dressing is simply the best.
The service is fantastic, quick and efficient.

I really like Leakey’s. It’s great to have a good look around the books and pick up a few good reads then head upstairs to the café and have a nice drink and something to eat. I’ve had lunch here once before and it was really nice. Had a nice sandwich and thought the prices were good too. They have an amazing selection of books with walls covered with them and even in stacks on the floor so you are pretty likely to find a good read there and they don’t charge too much for the books either– around £2 when I last bought a book from there. You can also buy prints from Leakey’s too.

This could be some setting for a Harry Potter novel only it’s better — a big crazy old building, which I gather was once a Gallic church and is now a huge second hand book store with a little café on the upper landing. It was a cold day when I first stumbled onto this place and in the center of the store (a book store mind you) was a huge wood burning fireplace — so cool (ummm I mean warm)