Digby House Gallery & Crafts

Digby House Gallery & Crafts is a by-appointment gallery and craft shop at 151 Queen Street in downtown Digby, a short walk from the waterfront and the scallop fleet the town is famous for. The stock is entirely Nova Scotia made: oil and acrylic paintings, epoxy resin art, knitting and quilted work, local honey, jewellery, and the blueberry jams and cranberry products the province's southwest produces in volume. A 4.5 Google rating and a listing on Tourism Nova Scotia's Digby directory make it the town's clearest answer to "where can I buy something made here, not imported?" — a gap this fills on the shopping list for our Bay of Fundy travel guide.

What's on the Shelves

The mix is deliberately broad — part working gallery, part craft consignment, part pantry. The paintings span local coastal and countryside work in oils and acrylics; the epoxy pieces are the contemporary end of the stock, poured-resin boards and wall art that photograph well and travel poorly, which is the honest trade-off of buying art on a trip. The textile side runs to knitting and quilted projects, handwork that southwestern Nova Scotia has always done well, and the food shelf carries local honey and the blueberry jams and cranberry preserves that come out of the Annapolis Valley and Digby County fields each fall. For visitors pairing the stop with a meal, the Crow's Nest and the Fundy Restaurant on the waterfront cover the scallop-and-lobster end of the day.

The stock rotates, as consignment stock does — call before making a special trip for a specific type of piece. What does not change is the premise: everything in the store is made in Nova Scotia, which is rarer than it should be in a province whose gift-shop shelves fill from import warehouses like everywhere else's.

Why By Appointment Matters Here

The by-appointment model is the practical detail that shapes a visit. This is not a store with fixed retail hours and a staffed counter; it is a working gallery where the person behind the collection meets you at the door. That means two things for travellers. First, you get the conversation — provenance of the paintings, which valley farm the honey comes from, who quilted what — the kind of context a self-serve gift shop cannot offer. Second, you must plan: call (902) 245-3315 a day or more ahead, especially in the July–August peak and during festival weeks, when the town's visitor volume is highest and same-day openings are harder to come by.

Practical Information

Address & Location: 151 Queen Street, Digby, NS — downtown, a short walk up from the Water Street waterfront and its restaurants.

Hours: Open year-round by appointment. Call (902) 245-3315 to arrange a viewing.

Phone: (902) 245-3315.

Price Range: Broad by design — jams and honey in the $10–15 range, jewellery and small craft above that, original paintings at gallery prices.

Website: None — the gallery has no stand-alone site. Tourism Nova Scotia's Digby House Gallery & Crafts listing carries the current details.

Parking: Street parking on Queen Street and the surrounding blocks; the downtown core is flat and walkable.

Getting There: Digby is the terminus of the Digby–Saint John ferry (see our ferry route planner) and the western anchor of the Bay of Fundy drive. The gallery is downtown on Queen Street, a short walk from the waterfront boardwalk and a five-minute drive from the ferry terminal.

Digby House is the stop for travellers who want to bring home a piece of southwestern Nova Scotia that was made there, not shipped in — a painting of the coast, a jar of blueberry jam from the county, a quilt that carries a maker's name. Call ahead, buy what you can't get at home, and give the paintings a longer look than the ferry schedule allows.