03
Kirkwall excursions, from the free stones to the private vehicle
Ordered by how each holds up against the only question an Orkney tour has to answer. Can you get there without it?
In most Baltic ports the answer is yes and the tour loses. Here it is usually no, and the argument moves to which operator, at what real total.
The berth detail — which pier, which shuttle, and why a tender is good news at this port — lives in our Kirkwall cruise port guide. If Orkney is one stop on a longer week, our Northern Europe cruises guide helps you decide which port earns the paid day.
Start here, because everything else on this page gets priced against it.
Tour Orkney sells a private guided tour in a vehicle for up to eight from GBP 560, covering Skara Brae, the Stones of Stenness, the Barnhouse Neolithic settlement, the Ring of Brodgar, the Churchill Barriers and Scapa Flow, the Italian Chapel and St Magnus Cathedral.
All entry tickets are included. The operator’s own figure at full capacity is approximately GBP 97-99 per person.
It runs 4.5 hours and can be shortened for tight cruise schedules.
Pick-up is at Hatston Cruise Terminal, Kirkwall Pier or the tender landing point — so it works whichever of the three berths your ship draws.
The operator also publishes ‘100% refund if your ship can’t dock’, which in a port with an exposed anchorage is worth reading twice.
The catch here is arithmetic, not quality. GBP 560 buys the vehicle — eight people pay roughly GBP 97-99 each, two people split the whole GBP 560 between them.
That one sentence decides whether this is the cheapest tour on the page or the most expensive.
- Time commitment
- 4.5 hours on the operator’s own listing, shortenable for a tight schedule.
- Getting there
- Collected at Hatston Cruise Terminal, Kirkwall Pier or the tender landing point — no shuttle leg to budget for at either end.
- Suits
- Groups of six to eight, families travelling together, and anyone who wants Maeshowe added rather than assumed.
- Ship or independent
- Independent, booked direct. A ship’s coach cannot beat a vehicle you have filled yourself.
Why it’s worth considering
At full capacity it is roughly GBP 97-99 a head with every admission already paid — and two of the four headline sites were free anyway, so what you are really buying is Skara Brae, the Italian Chapel and a driver who knows the roads.
It collects at all three berths, which matters in a port where your berth is set by your ship’s size, not by anyone’s preference.
The catch
Maeshowe is not on the published itinerary. If you want it, ask before you book and let the operator handle the timed slot.
GBP 560 for two people is a completely different product from GBP 560 for eight. Do that division yourself before you compare it with anything.
Verify before you book
- Whether Maeshowe can be added, and whether the operator will book the timed slot for you
- Your berth, because the pick-up point differs between Hatston, the town pier and the tender landing
- How many of you are actually travelling, because the per-head figure only holds at eight
The honest alternative, and it needs one line read carefully.
GoOrkney runs small-group Highlights tours from GBP 125 per person over 3.5 to 5.5 hours depending on the date, with personal pick-up and drop-off at both Hatston Pier and Kirkwall Pier — and timely return to ship guaranteed.
Routes vary by version, not by price. They cover Skara Brae, the Ring of Brodgar and the Stones of Stenness and Yesnaby’s cliffs, with the Italian Chapel, the Churchill Barriers and St Magnus Cathedral on the longer ones.
St Magnus Cathedral only appears on the 5.5-hour version. It is also free and walkable from the town landing — weigh it accordingly.
Now the line that matters. Admission fees are not included in that GBP 125.
So GBP 125 against Tour Orkney’s approximately GBP 97-99 is not a like-for-like comparison until you have added them.
Brodgar and Stenness are free, so they add nothing. Skara Brae is GBP 14.00 for an adult booked online, and the Italian Chapel is GBP 4 per adult.
We are not doing that addition for you. The route varies by date, and so does what you will actually be asked to pay at a gate.
Do it yourself, on your own route and your own party size, before you decide which of the two is cheaper.
- Time commitment
- 3.5 to 5.5 hours on the operator’s own listing, and which one runs depends on the date.
- Getting there
- Personal pick-up and drop-off at the pier, at both Hatston Pier and Kirkwall Pier.
- Suits
- Couples, solo travellers and parties of two or three, where a private vehicle price does not divide well.
- Ship or independent
- Independent. A small group with guaranteed return is what most ship excursions are selling, at a local price.
Why it’s worth considering
For two people this is almost certainly the cheaper of the two local options, even after admissions.
A 3.5-hour version exists, which is the one that fits a short call without turning the day into a sprint.
The catch
The GBP 125 headline is a floor, not a total. Read the admissions line before you compare it with anything.
Maeshowe is not on this published route either, so the one site that genuinely needs pre-booking is on neither operator’s standard loop.
Verify before you book
- Which version runs on your call date, because 3.5 hours and 5.5 hours are different days out
- Exactly which admissions you will be asked to pay at the gate, and at which sites
- Whether you are at Hatston or the town pier, so the pick-up point is agreed in advance
The finest chambered tomb in north-west Europe — entered down a low passage aligned on the midwinter sunset, holding the largest collection of Viking runic graffiti anywhere.
It is also the only site in Orkney where turning up hopefully is a genuine risk.
Access is by timed guided tour only, and tours last one hour.
They depart from the Maeshowe Visitor Centre in Stenness village, not from the mound, with check-in 15 minutes before.
People drive to the cairn, find no way in, and lose the slot. That is the mistake this card exists to prevent.
April to September the tours run at 10am, 12 noon, 2pm and 4pm daily. October to March they run at 10am, 12 noon and 2pm.
Historic Environment Scotland’s own wording: ‘Due to limited capacity, it is strongly recommended to reserve your visit online to guarantee entry and avoid disappointment.’
Adult tickets are GBP 10.00 online or GBP 11.00 walk-up, concession GBP 8.00 or GBP 9.00, and a child aged 7 to 15 is GBP 6.00 or GBP 6.50. Family tickets run GBP 20.00 to GBP 37.50 depending on composition.
Neither local operator lists Maeshowe on its published itinerary. If it matters to you, pre-book the slot yourself, or buy an excursion that has already booked it and get that in writing.
- Time commitment
- 1 hour for the tour itself, plus 15 minutes for check-in, plus getting out to Stenness. It is a fixed appointment in a day that has no other fixed appointments.
- Getting there
- The Maeshowe Visitor Centre at Stenness village, across the road from the Standing Stones. There is no scheduled public transport that links it to Kirkwall inside a port day.
- Suits
- Anyone who came to Orkney for the Neolithic rather than for the scenery, and anyone who has already seen the stone circles from outside.
- Ship or independent
- Either — but whichever you choose, the timed slot has to exist before you arrive. That is the whole point.
Why it’s worth considering
At GBP 10.00 online it is the cheapest headline Neolithic ticket in Orkney, and the only one with a guide included.
The Viking runes are the thing people remember, and you will not see them from the outside of anything.
The catch
Four departures a day in summer and three in winter, each with limited capacity, on a day when a large ship may be in. That is a queue you cannot join late.
The 4pm tour disappears on 1 October, so a shoulder-season call loses the slot that fits a long port day best.
You enter down a low passage. Historic Environment Scotland describes the access and we are not going to translate that into a fitness claim.
Verify before you book
- That the slot you want exists on your call date, and book it online rather than at the door
- Whether your tour operator has booked Maeshowe, if you assumed one had
- Whether your call date falls before or after 1 October, because the 4pm tour goes on that line
Half of what people come to Orkney for has no ticket at all.
Historic Environment Scotland on Brodgar, in its own words: ‘The Ring of Brodgar is free to visit and open year-round.’
It is a huge Neolithic stone circle and henge on the isthmus between the Lochs of Harray and Stenness — open landscape, no building, no gate.
The Standing Stones of Stenness are a short distance away, and free too. The prices page for that site says only ‘Open all year round’ and lists no admission charge.
Four surviving megaliths — among the oldest stone circles in Britain — unstaffed and open.
Maeshowe is across the road from Stenness, which is why those three sit together on every itinerary in Orkney.
The good news and the catch are the same sentence. No building means no shelter, and Orkney is treeless and exposed.
What these sites do not have is any way of getting to them. That absence is the entire reason a tour exists in this port.
- Time commitment
- Self-paced, and neither site publishes a suggested visit length. Both are open landscape you walk into.
- Getting there
- On the isthmus between the lochs, west of Kirkwall. No scheduled service links them to the town inside a port day, which is why they appear on every tour route.
- Suits
- Everyone, at any budget — provided someone is driving.
- Ship or independent
- Independent at the site, since there is nothing to buy. The transport is the only thing anyone can sell you here.
Why it’s worth considering
Two of the four headline Neolithic sites, free, with no opening hours to plan around and no tickets to book.
They change the sums on every tour on this page. If a route covers only these two, you are paying purely for the road.
The catch
Exposed open ground with nowhere to shelter, in a place where sideways rain happens in any month.
Free does not mean reachable. Without wheels these are the two easiest sites in Orkney to miss entirely.
Verify before you book
- That your tour route actually stops at both, rather than driving past one
- What you are wearing, because there is no building at either site
- Whether your operator treats these as photo stops or as time on the ground
The 5,000-year-old Neolithic village on the Bay of Skaill — uncovered by a storm in 1850, with stone furniture still standing in the houses.
This is the one ticketed site that also keeps hours — and the hours, not the price, are what people miss.
It opens 09:30 to 17:30 from 1 April to 30 September, and 10:00 to 16:00 from 1 October to 31 March, with last entry an hour before closing.
Tickets are GBP 14.00 for an adult booked online against GBP 16.00 in person, GBP 8.50 for a child aged 7 to 15 online against GBP 9.50, and GBP 11.00 concession online against GBP 13.00. Historic Scotland members go free.
Skaill House — the 17th-century laird’s house next door — is included in the Skara Brae ticket during the summer. Outside the summer it operates separately.
The village itself is a 500-metre walk from the visitor centre, on a path of mainly bound crushed stone.
There is no shelter at the far end of that path. Read the weather line on this page before you decide what to wear for it.
It is on the far west coast at Sandwick — the furthest of the headline sites from Kirkwall, and the reason most tour routes are shaped the way they are.
- Time commitment
- Self-paced, with no published visit duration. Budget the 500-metre path in both directions on top of whatever you spend at the village.
- Getting there
- Sandwick, on the west coast. Every tour route on this page includes it, and nothing scheduled runs there from Kirkwall inside a port day.
- Suits
- Anyone at all. It is the site people picture when they picture Orkney.
- Ship or independent
- Independent for the ticket, which is cheaper bought online. The transport is the part you are buying from someone.
Why it’s worth considering
It is the reason Orkney is on your itinerary, and the interiors are genuinely intact, not reconstructed.
Booked online it is GBP 14.00 instead of GBP 16.00, and Skaill House comes with it in summer.
The catch
Winter hours from 1 October drop it to 10:00-16:00, with last entry an hour before that. A late-season call has a much narrower window than people expect.
The 500-metre crushed-stone path is the access fact nobody mentions until they are on it.
Verify before you book
- Which season your call date falls in, because the closing time moves from 17:30 to 16:00 on 1 October
- The last-entry time against your tour’s arrival, not against the closing time
- Whether Skaill House is included on your date, since that is a summer-only inclusion
If you tender in or draw the town pier, Orkney’s best free day is already in front of you.
If you are at Hatston, the shuttle covers the 4km in approximately seven minutes and costs nothing either.
St Magnus Cathedral is Britain’s most northerly cathedral — founded in 1137 by the Norse earls in red and yellow sandstone, and still the town’s parish church.
Its own site is unambiguous: ‘Entrance to the cathedral is free.’
It opens Monday to Saturday 09:00 to 17:00 and Sunday 13:00 to 17:00 from April to September, and Monday to Saturday 09:00 to 13:00 plus 14:00 to 17:00 from October to March.
A guide book is available inside for a small charge, and the St Magnus Centre on Palace Road runs a free multi-lingual film and app a few minutes away.
The Orkney Museum is directly opposite the cathedral, in Tankerness House on Broad Street — free entry, donations welcome, suggested GBP 5, open Monday to Saturday 10:30 to 17:00.
Neolithic to Norse to modern Orkney — in a 16th-century merchant-laird’s townhouse, with the Tankerness House Gardens behind it.
The ruined Bishop’s and Earl’s Palaces stand across the road. We could not source a price or an opening season for them, so we are printing neither.
Albert Street and the waterfront fill the rest of an hour and cost nothing at all.
- Time commitment
- An hour or so in the museum, and a comfortable half day for the whole town. Nobody publishes a duration and none is needed.
- Getting there
- On foot from Kirkwall Basin or Kirkwall North Pier. From Hatston, the complimentary shuttle to the Kirkwall Travel Centre, approximately seven minutes.
- Suits
- Short calls, tight budgets, repeat visitors, and anyone who would rather look at one building properly than five from a window.
- Ship or independent
- Independent, and it is not close. There is nothing here a tour can unlock.
Why it’s worth considering
It is the only part of Orkney that needs no vehicle, no ticket and no booking.
The museum is the ideal filler for a town-berth day and asks only for a donation.
The catch
The cathedral closes 13:00 to 14:00 from October to March, which is exactly when a short winter call is ashore.
The Orkney Museum is closed on Sundays. Check your call day against that before you build a morning around it.
Verify before you book
- The cathedral’s winter hours against your time ashore, because of that midday closure
- Whether your call falls on a Sunday, when the museum does not open
- The last Hatston shuttle time, which is 60 minutes before departure or 18:00 if the ship sails after 19:00
The world’s most northerly Scotch whisky distillery is on the edge of Kirkwall, and it sells two quite different things.
The Welcome Experience is the entry-level tour and tasting: 75 minutes, GBP 30.
You can also just walk in. That is the distillery’s own position, in its own words.
Individual 15ml serves start at GBP 7.50, and flights of three pours start at GBP 20.
For a short call that is the version that fits — a drink, not an appointment. No slot, no commitment, and you leave when your ship needs you to.
There is a ladder above it if you want one. Longer experiences run from GBP 75 for the 90-minute Local Legend up to GBP 1,600 for the 3.5-hour Rare & Exclusive.
Price the GBP 30 tour against what else 75 minutes buys you in Orkney. On a day with Skara Brae in it, that is a real trade.
- Time commitment
- 75 minutes for the Welcome Experience. The walk-in tasting takes as long as you like, which is the point of it.
- Getting there
- On the edge of Kirkwall. From the town landing it is a town-scale distance; from Hatston, take the shuttle in first.
- Suits
- Short calls, whisky drinkers, and anyone whose party has split up for the afternoon.
- Ship or independent
- Independent. A booked distillery slot inside a coach tour is the least flexible version of this.
Why it’s worth considering
From GBP 7.50 a pour with no booking is the lowest-commitment paid thing in this port.
It is the one Orkney experience that does not depend on the weather or on a vehicle.
The catch
75 minutes and GBP 30 is a meaningful slice of a port day that also contains Neolithic sites out on the west of the Mainland.
If you are at Hatston, add the shuttle at both ends before you decide it fits.
Verify before you book
- Whether the Welcome Experience has availability on your date, since the walk-in tasting does not need it and the tour does
- Your all-aboard against 75 minutes plus the shuttle, if you are at Hatston
- What you intend to carry back aboard, and your line’s alcohol policy
Two Nissen huts turned into a Catholic chapel by Italian prisoners of war who were building the Churchill Barriers — with trompe-l’oeil interior painting by Domenico Chiocchetti.
It is the emotional one, and it is cheap — GBP 4, not GBP 40.
GBP 4 per adult. Children 12 and under go free, as do tour guides and drivers.
A history booklet is available for a GBP 1 donation, in English, Italian and German.
The hours move five times across the year: 10:00 to 13:00 from November to March, 10:00 to 16:00 in April and October, 09:00 to 17:00 in May and September, and 09:00 to 17:30 from June to August.
Read that against a shoulder-season call. An October visit has three fewer hours in the day than a June one.
The listing also says ‘Advanced booking is essential for larger groups’, which is your tour operator’s problem, not yours — unless you are the larger group.
It is at Lamb Holm — reached from Kirkwall across the Churchill Barriers — and is typically a 20 to 30 minute stop combined with the Barriers and Scapa Flow.
- Time commitment
- A short visit, typically 20 to 30 minutes, usually bundled with the Churchill Barriers and Scapa Flow on a tour.
- Getting there
- Lamb Holm, Orkney KW17 2SF, across the Churchill Barriers from Kirkwall. It sits on the southern loop rather than the Neolithic one.
- Suits
- Anyone interested in the wartime Orkney story, and anyone whose tour is heading south rather than west.
- Ship or independent
- Independent for the GBP 4, which you can pay at the door. The Barriers are the part you need a vehicle for.
Why it’s worth considering
GBP 4 is the smallest admission in Orkney and it buys the most unexpected building on the islands.
It pairs naturally with Scapa Flow and the Barriers, which is a different day out from the Neolithic loop.
The catch
It is on the southern route. A Skara Brae and Brodgar tour goes the other way, so check your itinerary rather than assuming both.
Winter hours close it at 13:00, which rules it out of most afternoon plans between November and March.
Verify before you book
- Which of the five seasonal opening windows your call date falls in
- Whether your tour route goes south to the Barriers at all, or west to Skara Brae
- Whether your party counts as a larger group, since advance booking is essential for those
The Scapa Flow story — in the restored wartime pumphouse at Lyness on Hoy.
The Grand Fleet anchorage, the scuttling of the German High Seas Fleet in 1919, the loss of HMS Royal Oak.
Entry is free, with donations welcome and a suggested GBP 5.
Getting there is the problem here, and it is a real one.
The route is Stagecoach Number 2 from the Kirkwall Travel Centre to the Houton ferry terminal, timed to meet the Hoy Head ferry to Lyness.
Orkney Museums confirms that connection exists. No bus fare, no ferry fare, no journey time and no crossing time is published on any source we could reach.
So there is nothing here you can plan against in advance — a timing problem, not a money one.
The museum is closed altogether in January and February, and runs generally 09:30 to 16:15 from March to December, on days that vary by month.
Half a day minimum once the ferry timings are counted. On a six-hour call this is a gamble, not an itinerary.
- Time commitment
- Half a day minimum once ferry timings are counted, and the timings themselves are not published. Realistically a long-call proposition only.
- Getting there
- Stagecoach Number 2 from the Kirkwall Travel Centre to Houton, then the Hoy Head ferry to Lyness. The Travel Centre is where the Hatston shuttle drops you.
- Suits
- Naval historians on a genuinely long call, and nobody else on a port day.
- Ship or independent
- If you want this on a short call, it is a tour’s timings you are buying, not its commentary.
Why it’s worth considering
It is free, and it is the definitive telling of the story that makes Scapa Flow a name.
The bus connection to the ferry is timed to meet it, which is more than most rural connections manage.
The catch
Nobody publishes the fares or the timings, so the whole plan rests on numbers you cannot check before you sail.
Closed in January and February outright, and the generally 09:30 to 16:15 window varies by month.
Miss the return ferry and you have missed your ship. That is the actual risk here, and no free admission offsets it.
Verify before you book
- The Hoy Head return timings for your exact date, locally and before you commit to the outbound leg
- Your ship’s all-aboard against a crossing nobody publishes a duration for
- Whether the museum is open on your call day at all, since the days vary by month
04
Ship tour or on your own, when nothing scheduled goes where you want
Orkney is one of the better independent ports in northern Europe — with one large exception that swallows the whole argument.
What is free and walkable
If you tender in or draw Kirkwall North Pier, you are in the middle of town. St Magnus Cathedral is free, the Orkney Museum opposite it is free with a suggested GBP 5 donation, and the ruined palaces are across the road.
From Hatston the complimentary shuttle covers 4km in approximately seven minutes — the free town day works from any berth.
What is free and not walkable, which is the problem
The Ring of Brodgar and the Stones of Stenness are free, open all year and unstaffed — and they are out on the isthmus between the lochs with nothing scheduled running to them.
Skara Brae is further still, on the west coast at Sandwick, and Maeshowe is across the road from Stenness.
There is no realistic way to link them on public transport inside a port day.
So what a tour sells here is the road. It is not selling you access to a site — two of the four sites have no gate at all.
The comparison people get wrong
Tour Orkney quotes from GBP 560 for a private vehicle holding up to eight, 4.5 hours, with all entry tickets included — approximately GBP 97-99 per person at full capacity, on the operator’s own figure.
GoOrkney quotes small-group Highlights tours from GBP 125 per person over 3.5 to 5.5 hours, with admission fees not included.
GBP 97-99 looks cheaper than GBP 125, and at eight people it is. At two people the GBP 560 is split two ways and it is not.
Then the inclusions. Brodgar and Stenness are free, so they add nothing — Skara Brae is GBP 14.00 for an adult online, and the Italian Chapel is GBP 4 per adult.
We are not adding those up for you, because the route varies by date. Add your own, for your own party, before you decide which quote is cheaper.
Where the ship’s own tour still earns its money
On timings you cannot verify. Both local operators guarantee return to the ship, which closes most of that gap — but the ship waits for its own coach, and in a port where an exposed anchorage can move your whole day, that is worth something.
Tour Orkney publishes ‘100% refund if your ship can’t dock’ — the independent answer to the same worry. Read it before you assume the ship’s tour is the only protected option.
One thing neither operator’s route includes
Maeshowe. It is not on Tour Orkney’s published itinerary and it is not on GoOrkney’s, and it is the one site that genuinely cannot be improvised — guided tours only, limited capacity, fixed times, departing from a visitor centre, not the mound.
If Maeshowe is why you came, book it yourself and build the rest of the day around that hour.
How each option compares in Kirkwall
| Excursion | Lean ship excursion when… | Independent works when… |
|---|
| Kirkwall town, cathedral and museum | Never. It is free and minutes from the town landing | Always — and the Hatston shuttle in is free too |
|---|
| Ring of Brodgar and Stones of Stenness | Only as part of a wider route, for the driving | You have wheels. Both sites are free; the road is the cost |
|---|
| Skara Brae | You want the driving done and the ticket already paid | You have a vehicle and booked GBP 14.00 online, not GBP 16.00 |
|---|
| Maeshowe | Only if your tour has booked the slot — ask, do not assume | You reserved online yourself, well before the call |
|---|
| Italian Chapel and the Churchill Barriers | It is on the southern route anyway, at GBP 4 a head | You are already being driven that way |
|---|
| Highland Park Distillery | Almost never. A booked slot is the least flexible version | Always. Walk in, no booking, from GBP 7.50 a serve |
|---|
| Scapa Flow Museum on Hoy | Only on a long call, and only for the timings | You have a very long call and no fear of a missed ferry |
|---|
| A day with six to eight of you | Rarely | Tour Orkney’s GBP 560 vehicle, at roughly GBP 97-99 each |
|---|
| A day with two of you | Possible, if the price lands near GBP 125 | GoOrkney from GBP 125 each — then add the admissions |
|---|
Short answer
Buy a tour in Orkney. This is the port on the itinerary where that is the honest answer, because two of the four great Neolithic sites are free and none of the four is reachable on anything scheduled. Which tour depends on how many of you there are — Tour Orkney’s GBP 560 vehicle is roughly GBP 97-99 a head with every admission paid at eight people, and GoOrkney’s GBP 125 per person is the better buy for two, once you have added the admissions it does not include. If Maeshowe matters, book the slot yourself before you sail, because it is on neither published route. And if you tender into Kirkwall Basin and only want the town, spend nothing at all.
06
Kirkwall logistics: prices, seasons and the ground under your feet
Why there is no route table on this page
Every other port guide we build opens with a can-you-get-there-and-back table — priced in minutes each way. Orkney does not get one, and here is why.
Almost nobody publishes a journey time here — not from Kirkwall to Skara Brae, and not to Brodgar, Stenness or Maeshowe.
Stagecoach Orkney fares and times are not confirmed from a primary source, and neither is the Houton-Lyness ferry fare or crossing.
The one published each-way figure is the cruise shuttle, at approximately seven minutes over 4km.
A table built from one real number and five invented ones is worse than no table. So this section gives you the figures that exist, and stops there.
The three berths, from the harbour authority’s own policy
- Hatston Pier: 385 metres of quay, maximum vessel length 345 metres, Category 1 to 5 — about 4km (2.5 miles) from the town centre
- Kirkwall North Pier: maximum vessel length 124 metres, Category 1 only — in the town centre, a few minutes from St Magnus Cathedral
- Kirkwall Bay Anchorage: no maximum length stated, Category 0 to 3, and ‘Vessels tender into Kirkwall Basin’ — which is the middle of town
- Hatston RoRo: maximum vessel length 131 metres, Category 1 to 4, allocated when free of ferry traffic
- Cruise Britain adds 10.5 metres draft and 10.5 metres at chart datum for Hatston, and names MSC Meraviglia as the largest vessel accommodated — Orkney Harbours’ own policy stops at the length figure and publishes no depth at all
The shuttle, and the two times that matter
- Complimentary shuttle from Hatston Pier to the Kirkwall Travel Centre, approximately seven minutes over the 4km
- It runs from 08:30 onwards, continuously on passenger demand rather than to a fixed timetable
- The last shuttle departs 60 minutes before the ship’s departure, or at 18:00 if the ship sails after 19:00
- Walking it takes 40 minutes to an hour along a road with little to look at, per Cruise Orkney
- Free internet at Hatston Pier, and a multi-lingual Meet and Greet information service
- No shuttle is needed from Kirkwall North Pier or from a tender into Kirkwall Basin — both put you in town on foot
What the sites actually cost
- Ring of Brodgar: free. Historic Environment Scotland, in its own words: ‘The Ring of Brodgar is free to visit and open year-round’
- Standing Stones of Stenness: free. The prices page says only ‘Open all year round’ and lists no charge
- Skara Brae: GBP 14.00 adult online, GBP 16.00 in person; child 7-15 GBP 8.50 online, GBP 9.50 in person; concession GBP 11.00 online, GBP 13.00 in person; members free
- Maeshowe: GBP 10.00 adult online, GBP 11.00 walk-up; concession GBP 8.00 or GBP 9.00; child 7-15 GBP 6.00 or GBP 6.50; family GBP 20.00 to GBP 37.50
- St Magnus Cathedral: free. The Orkney Museum: free, suggested GBP 5 donation. Scapa Flow Museum: free, suggested GBP 5
- The Italian Chapel: GBP 4 per adult, children 12 and under free, guides and drivers free; history booklet for a GBP 1 donation
- Highland Park: Welcome Experience GBP 30 for 75 minutes; walk-in 15ml serves from GBP 7.50; flights of three from GBP 20; longer experiences GBP 75 to GBP 1,600
Opening hours, and the 1 October line
- Skara Brae: 09:30-17:30 from 1 April to 30 September, 10:00-16:00 from 1 October to 31 March, last entry one hour before closing
- Maeshowe tours: 10am, 12 noon, 2pm and 4pm daily April to September; 10am, 12 noon and 2pm October to March. One hour each, check in 15 minutes before
- St Magnus Cathedral: Monday to Saturday 09:00-17:00 and Sunday 13:00-17:00 April to September; Monday to Saturday 09:00-13:00 and 14:00-17:00 October to March
- The Orkney Museum: Monday to Saturday 10:30-17:00
- The Italian Chapel: 10:00-13:00 November to March; 10:00-16:00 April and October; 09:00-17:00 May and September; 09:00-17:30 June to August
- Scapa Flow Museum: closed January and February; March to December generally 09:30-16:15, on days that vary by month
Historic Environment Scotland switches to winter hours on 1 October. Skara Brae drops to 10:00-16:00 and Maeshowe loses its 4pm tour, so a call in the first week of October is a materially different day from one in the last week of September.
The season, and what nobody publishes
Orkney Harbours does not publish cruise season start and end dates on any page we could read, including its 2026 cruise page. It describes ships ‘of all sizes calling into various locations around Orkney’ without giving months.
Historic Environment Scotland’s summer season — 1 April to 30 September — is the practical shape of it, and it is what will actually constrain your day.
Nor is there an annual call count — only a passenger figure, and it is the councillor’s rather than the harbour’s statistics page.
Councillor David Dawson, in the council’s own news release: ‘Orkney Harbours is the busiest port for transit passengers (day trips only) in the UK. Across the year we welcome up to 200,000 passengers.’
Cruise Britain calls Kirkwall the United Kingdom’s most popular cruise transit call destination. Orkney Harbours describes vessels ranging ‘from cruise vessels that bring over 4,000 passengers down to the smallest liners that can accommodate 12’.
The policy question, because it gets asked wrong
There is no cruise passenger cap in Orkney and no cruise levy in force. What exists is a berth-allocation policy agreed by Orkney Islands Council in August 2023.
It grades vessels by passenger capacity — Category 1 up to 500, rising to Category 5 for over 5,000 — and applies a daily rule: ‘The maximum TOTAL for Hatston Pier and Kirkwall Bay Anchorage should not exceed a category sum of 5.’
The council’s own accompanying line: ‘All cruise ships that currently call here in Orkney will continue to be able to do so.’ It is an allocation mechanism, not a passenger limit, and it does not apply to Kirkwall North Pier at all.
Separately, on 18 February 2025 the council backed ‘in principle’ giving local authorities discretionary powers to charge a levy on visiting cruise ships — a consultation response, not a levy. The Scottish Government’s consultation ran 27 February to 30 May 2025 and its analysis of responses was published on 10 March 2026, finding 62 percent of respondents supported giving councils the power.
No legislation has passed. No cruise levy is in force anywhere in Scotland, and Orkney also decided against an overnight visitor levy.
If you see an older simultaneous-passenger limit quoted for Orkney, it is historic — it is not in the current policy, and we are not going to reprint it.
Money, language and tipping
Pound sterling, with Scottish banknotes circulating alongside Bank of England notes. Cards and contactless are accepted at the major sites, at the distillery and in Kirkwall.
Orkney is rural, though. Small island businesses, honesty boxes and some rural cafes may want cash, so carry some.
English, with a strong Norse-derived dialect vocabulary and place-names, and no language barrier. Tipping follows UK norms and is fairly light — driver-guides on private tours are customarily tipped, and restaurant service is typically 10 percent where no service charge is added.
The tour prices on this page do not assume a tip.
The ground, and the weather that decides how it feels
Wind is the defining feature here, not cold. Orkney is treeless and exposed, the Neolithic sites are all in open landscape, and Brodgar and Stenness have no buildings at all.
Wind-proof layers beat an umbrella, which will not survive. Sideways rain is possible in any month.
On surfaces, the only figure anyone publishes is Skara Brae’s: a 500-metre path of mainly bound crushed stone from the visitor centre to the site, with no shelter at the far end. Maeshowe is entered down a low passage.
No operator or site we read publishes a wheelchair accessibility statement for an Orkney excursion. That is not proof of no provision, only that it isn’t stated — ask in writing before you pay for anything.
Daylight swings hard at 59 degrees north. Midsummer has almost no real darkness — the local phrase is the ‘simmer dim’ — and a June call has usable light well past 22:00.
By late September and October the days shorten fast.
Five things we could not price
Broch of Gurness, where Historic Environment Scotland lists the ticket types and not the amounts and its ticketing portal returned a 403. The Historic Scotland Explorer Pass, which would matter to anyone doing both Skara Brae and Maeshowe — same 403.
The Bishop’s and Earl’s Palaces in Kirkwall, whose prices page returned a 404.
Stagecoach Orkney fares, the Houton-Lyness ferry fare and taxi fares from Hatston — none of which anybody publishes.
None of those appears as a number anywhere on this page, because there is no published figure to print. The berth detail behind all of it is in our Kirkwall cruise port guide.
