Kirkwall in brief
Your ship decides this port before you do.
Which of Kirkwall's berths you draw comes down to length and passenger count, and that draw shapes the whole day.
Kirkwall has three cruise berths, and the choice is not yours.
Your ship makes it — length and passenger count, against a policy the harbour authority publishes.
Hatston Pier is the main one, and it is the furthest out.
Orkney Harbours’ cruise booking and confirmation policy gives it 385 metres of quay and a maximum vessel length of 345 metres, taking Category 1 to 5 vessels.
Cruise Orkney puts it about 4km — 2.5 miles — north-west of the town centre, on the Hatston industrial estate on the west side of Kirkwall Bay.
Cruise Britain lists it as 385 metres LOA with 10.5 metres draft and 10.5 metres at chart datum, and names MSC Meraviglia as the largest vessel accommodated.
Those depth figures are Cruise Britain’s, not the authority’s. The policy publishes length and no depth at all.
The pier was completed in 2003 and is also the NorthLink ferry berth. It is a working industrial quay, not a cruise terminal.
Kirkwall North Pier is the one in the middle of town, and almost nothing fits it.
The same policy caps it at 124 metres and Category 1 only — vessels of 500 passengers or fewer.
That makes it the small-ship and expedition berth. Nothing else. It is a size rule, not a queue you can join.
Cruise Orkney describes it as ‘right in the heart of the town, only a short walking distance from local shopping areas and restaurants’. St Magnus Cathedral is a few minutes away on foot.
Then the anchorage, which is where this port stops behaving like other ports.
Kirkwall Bay Anchorage takes Category 0 to 3 vessels — up to around 2,500 passengers — and the policy sets no maximum length for it whatsoever.
Orkney Harbours’ own wording is four words long: ‘Vessels tender into Kirkwall Basin.’
Kirkwall Basin is the town. Cruise Orkney says tendered passengers ‘will disembark right in the heart of the town’.
So the tender lands you better placed than the pier does. The 4km shuttle ride is the alternative, not the upgrade.
That inversion is the single most useful thing on this page, and it is the opposite of the advice that travels with the word ‘tender’ everywhere else.
A fourth berth exists and it is a footnote. Hatston RoRo takes vessels to 131 metres, Category 1 to 4 — but only when it is clear of ferry traffic.
Orkney Harbours adds that ‘Other locations under Orkney Harbours jurisdiction will be allocated on an individual basis’, and Cruise Britain mentions berths in Stromness and on some of the isles.
A small expedition ship may not call at Kirkwall at all. Stromness is not listed as a designated cruise berth in the policy either way.
The walk off Hatston is possible, and it is not a plan.
Cruise Orkney puts it at 40 minutes to an hour along a road with little to look at.
The complimentary shuttle covers the same 4km in approximately seven minutes, to the Kirkwall Travel Centre.
It starts at 08:30 and runs continuously on passenger demand, not to a timetable.
The last shuttle leaves 60 minutes before the ship’s departure, or at 18:00 if the ship sails after 19:00.
Write that second one down. It is the number that catches people who head out to the west coast on their own.
Hatston has free internet and a multi-lingual Meet and Greet information service. Taxis meet ships there as well.
Orkney’s taxi fleet is small. On a day with a 4,000-passenger ship in, do not plan on finding one.
Now the thing almost everyone gets wrong about Orkney and cruise numbers.
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 into categories by passenger capacity — Category 1 is up to 500, rising to Category 5 for over 5,000 — and applies a daily rule to two of the berths.
The policy’s own wording: ‘The maximum TOTAL for Hatston Pier and Kirkwall Bay Anchorage should not exceed a category sum of 5.’
In practice one very large ship fills the day’s allocation alone — a Category 3 and a Category 2 can share it instead.
The line that went out with it is the council’s, not ours. ‘All cruise ships that currently call here in Orkney will continue to be able to do so.’
So it is an allocation mechanism, not a passenger limit.
It also does not apply to Kirkwall North Pier at all — the town-centre berth sits outside the daily sum.
The levy is a separate story, and it is earlier in the process than the headlines suggest.
On 18 February 2025 the council backed ‘in principle’ giving local authorities discretionary powers to charge a levy on visiting cruise ships.
That was 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.
Orkney separately decided against an overnight visitor levy.
If you see an older figure quoted for a limit on simultaneous cruise passengers in Orkney, it is historic. It is not in the current policy, and we are not going to reprint it here.
How busy it actually is, in the only figures anyone publishes.
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.
Nobody publishes an annual call count. We read Orkney Harbours’ pages and the council’s, and there is not one.
Orkney Harbours does describe the range — ‘from cruise vessels that bring over 4,000 passengers down to the smallest liners that can accommodate 12’.
Season dates are the same kind of gap. The harbour authority publishes no cruise season start or end on any page we could read, including its 2026 cruise page.
What does have dates is Historic Environment Scotland, and those are the dates that will actually constrain you — summer runs 1 April to 30 September, with winter hours from 1 October.
Which tour earns its price here, and which is a taxi fare with a guide attached, is the job of our Kirkwall shore excursion guide.
On foot from the ship
The counter-intuitive card on this page. Orkney Harbours sets no maximum vessel length for the anchorage and accepts Category 0 to 3 there, and Cruise Orkney says tendered passengers ‘will disembark right in the heart of the town’. If your ship is on the hook, you are better placed than the ship at the pier.
Orkney Harbours caps this berth at 124 metres and Category 1 vessels only — 500 passengers or fewer. Cruise Orkney calls it ‘only a short walking distance from local shopping areas and restaurants’, and the cathedral is a few minutes on foot. If you are on a mainstream ship, this is not your berth.
Cruise Orkney’s figure, and the harbour authority does not publish its own. Walking it takes 40 minutes to an hour along a road with little to look at — possible, and not a plan. The pier is a working industrial quay shared with the NorthLink ferry.
Complimentary, from 08:30 onwards, running continuously on passenger demand, not to a timetable. The last one back leaves 60 minutes before the ship’s departure, or at 18:00 if she sails after 19:00. Free internet at the pier, and a multi-lingual Meet and Greet service.
‘Entrance to the cathedral is free,’ on its own site — April to September, Monday to Saturday 09:00 to 17:00 and Sunday 13:00 to 17:00. The Orkney Museum is directly opposite, free with a suggested GBP 5 donation, Monday to Saturday 10:30 to 17:00. That is a half-day that costs nothing.
Nobody publishes one, so we are not estimating one. Taxis do meet ships at Hatston, and Orkney’s fleet is small — on a day with a 4,000-passenger ship in, demand outruns supply. The free shuttle is the reliable version of this journey.
What's nearby, broadly
Kirkwall itself is a comfortable free half-day on foot if you berth at the town pier or tender in — the cathedral, the museum opposite it, the ruined palaces across the road, and Albert Street down to the harbour front. Everything else is a drive. Skara Brae is out on the west coast at Sandwick, the Ring of Brodgar and the Stones of Stenness sit on the isthmus between the lochs, Maeshowe is across the road from Stenness, and the Italian Chapel is over the Churchill Barriers on Lamb Holm. The split here is not walkable against expensive — it is walkable against needing a vehicle, and no bus fills that gap inside a port day.
Commonly reached from
Orkney is the busiest port for transit passengers in the UK on its own harbour authority’s account, welcoming up to 200,000 passengers across the year, on ships ranging from over 4,000 passengers down to the smallest liners carrying 12. What nobody publishes is an annual call count or a season, so we are not printing either. The other British and Irish calls in this wave have their own berth pages built the same way — Edinburgh, Belfast and Dublin. The wider picture is in our Northern Europe cruise guide, and the ranked tour decision for this call lives in our Kirkwall shore excursion guide.
Planning your Kirkwall day
The specific picks — which paid excursion is actually worth it, what to skip, and why — already have their own dedicated guide, built and kept current on its own schedule. This page stays at the port-identity level on purpose; that one goes deep.
Booking a tour yourself? Our comparison of Shore Excursions Group and Viator covers which of the two suits which kind of port day — and when the ship’s own tour is still the better buy.
Best Kirkwall shore excursions
Orkney's stones are spread across West Mainland and no bus links them — this is the rare Baltic call where a tour is the honest answer.
See the full excursion guide →Practical notes
Maeshowe is the trap here, and it catches people every season.
You cannot walk into it. Access is by timed guided tour only.
The tour does not start at the mound. It departs from the Maeshowe Visitor Centre in Stenness village, with check-in 15 minutes before.
People drive to the cairn, find no way in, and lose the slot.
Tours last one hour. April to September they run at 10am, 12 noon, 2pm and 4pm daily; October to March at 10am, 12 noon and 2pm.
Historic Environment Scotland’s own wording is the part to act on: ‘Due to limited capacity, it is strongly recommended to reserve your visit online to guarantee entry and avoid disappointment.’
On a cruise day with a big ship in, turning up on spec is a bad bet.
Adult tickets are GBP 10.00 online or GBP 11.00 walk-up, concession GBP 8.00 or GBP 9.00, child aged 7 to 15 GBP 6.00 or GBP 6.50.
Family tickets run GBP 20.00 to GBP 37.50 depending on the composition.
Two of the four great Neolithic sites are free and two are not. That mix is the whole planning problem in Orkney.
The Ring of Brodgar is free. Historic Environment Scotland: ‘The Ring of Brodgar is free to visit and open year-round.’
The Standing Stones of Stenness are free too — the prices page for that site says only ‘Open all year round’ and lists no admission charge.
Both are unstaffed open landscape — no gate, no building, no shelter.
Skara Brae is the ticketed one that also keeps hours, and the hours are the part people miss.
It is GBP 14.00 adult online against GBP 16.00 in person, GBP 8.50 for a child of 7 to 15 online, GBP 11.00 concession online. Historic Scotland members go free.
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.
Skaill House — the 17th-century laird’s house next door — is included in the Skara Brae ticket, summer only.
The village itself is a 500-metre walk from the visitor centre, on a path of mainly bound crushed stone, with no shelter at the far end.
Buy the Historic Environment Scotland tickets online before you sail.
Both ticketed sites cost less online than at the gate. Skara Brae is GBP 14.00 against GBP 16.00; Maeshowe is GBP 10.00 against GBP 11.00.
On Skara Brae that is a few pounds a head. On Maeshowe it is also the difference between having a slot and not having one.
If you berth in town, Orkney’s best free day is already in front of you.
St Magnus Cathedral is free. Its own site: ‘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.
Founded in 1137 by the Norse earls in red and yellow sandstone, it is still Kirkwall’s parish church and the reason the town is where it is.
The St Magnus Centre on Palace Road, a few minutes away, runs a free multi-lingual film and app. A guide book is available in the cathedral for a small charge.
The Orkney Museum sits directly opposite, in Tankerness House on Broad Street — free entry, donations welcome, suggested GBP 5, open Monday to Saturday 10:30 to 17:00.
The ruined Bishop’s and Earl’s Palaces stand across the road from the cathedral.
We could not get a price or an opening season for the palaces — Historic Environment Scotland’s page for that site returned a 404 — so we are printing neither.
Albert Street and the waterfront cost nothing and fill an hour.
Highland Park, without committing to a tour.
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 a 75-minute tour and tasting at GBP 30.
You can also just walk in. The distillery’s own words: ‘There’s no need to book - just turn up and enjoy.’
Individual 15ml serves start at GBP 7.50, and flights of three pours start at GBP 20.
That is the version that fits a short call — a drink, not an appointment. Longer experiences run from GBP 75 for the 90-minute Local Legend up to GBP 1,600 for the 3.5-hour Rare & Exclusive.
The Scapa Flow Museum is free, and it is not a casual add-on.
It is at Lyness on Hoy, in the restored wartime pumphouse — the Grand Fleet anchorage, the 1919 scuttling of the German High Seas Fleet, the loss of HMS Royal Oak.
Free entry, donations welcome, suggested GBP 5.
Getting there is Stagecoach Number 2 from the Kirkwall Travel Centre to Houton, then the Hoy Head ferry to Lyness.
Neither the bus fare, the ferry fare nor the crossing time is published on any source we could reach. There is no timing here you can plan against in advance.
It 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 short call that is a gamble, not an itinerary.
Money, language and tipping.
Pound sterling. Scottish banknotes circulate alongside Bank of England notes, and both spend.
Cards and contactless are accepted at the major sites, at the distillery and in Kirkwall — widely, not universally.
Orkney is rural, though, and small island businesses, honesty boxes and some rural cafes may want cash. 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 quoted across our Orkney pages do not assume a tip.
Light and weather, which at 59 degrees north are not background detail.
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.
Historic Environment Scotland switches to winter hours on 1 October. Skara Brae drops to 10:00 to 16:00, and Maeshowe loses its 4pm tour.
A call in the first week of October is a different day from a call in the last week of September. Check which side of that line you fall.
Wind is the defining feature here — wind, not cold.
Orkney is treeless and exposed, and the Neolithic sites are all in open landscape. Brodgar and Stenness have no buildings at all.
Wind-proof layers beat an umbrella, which will not survive. Expect sideways rain in any month.
Five things we could not price, and are therefore not pricing.
Broch of Gurness. Historic Environment Scotland lists the ticket types for it 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, whose prices page returned a 404.
Stagecoach Orkney fares and times, and the Houton to Lyness ferry fare and crossing time. Orkney Museums confirms the connection exists; nobody publishes the numbers.
Taxi fares from Hatston into Kirkwall. Not published on any source we checked, so there is no figure here to plan with.
One last thing, and it is really the first thing.
Ask your ship which berth it has drawn before you book anything with a fixed start time on it.
Sources: Orkney Islands Council Harbour Authority’s own cruise booking and confirmation policy and its cruise-ship sector pages (orkneyharbours.com), the council’s news releases on the cruise booking policy and on the cruise ship levy (orkney.gov.uk), the Scottish Government’s analysis of responses to its consultation on a potential local authority cruise ship levy, published 10 March 2026 (gov.scot), Cruise Orkney’s Kirkwall information page (cruise-orkney.com), Cruise Britain’s Kirkwall port entry (cruisebritain.org), ports.org.uk, Historic Environment Scotland’s prices and opening-times pages for Skara Brae, Maeshowe, the Ring of Brodgar, the Stones of Stenness and the Broch of Gurness (historicenvironment.scot), St Magnus Cathedral (stmagnus.org), Orkney Islands Council Museums for the Orkney Museum and the Scapa Flow Museum (orkneymuseums.co.uk), VisitOrkney’s Italian Chapel listing (orkney.com), Highland Park Distillery (highlandparkwhisky.com), Tour Orkney (tourorkney.com) and GoOrkney (goorkney.com) — all consulted September 22, 2026.
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Kirkwall FAQ
Where do cruise ships berth in Kirkwall, and will I have to tender?
There are three options, and your ship’s size decides which one you get. Hatston Pier is the main cruise berth — 385 metres of quay, a maximum vessel length of 345 metres, about 4km (2.5 miles) from town, and it takes everything up to the largest ships calling here.
Kirkwall North Pier is in the town centre but is limited to vessels of 124 metres and Category 1 only, meaning ships of 500 passengers or fewer. Mid-size ships of up to around 2,500 passengers can be put at anchor in Kirkwall Bay and tendered into Kirkwall Basin, and Orkney Harbours sets no maximum length for the anchorage at all.
There is also Hatston RoRo, at 131 metres and Category 1 to 4, allocated when the berth is free of ferry traffic. All four rules come from the harbour authority’s own cruise booking and confirmation policy.
Is being tendered at Kirkwall a bad thing?
No — here it is usually the good outcome, which is the opposite of the advice that travels with the word everywhere else.
Tenders land in Kirkwall Basin. Cruise Orkney says tendered passengers ‘will disembark right in the heart of the town’, a few minutes’ walk from St Magnus Cathedral, the Orkney Museum and the shops on Albert Street.
The alternative is Hatston Pier, 2.5 miles out on an industrial estate, with a shuttle ride at both ends of your day. So a tender saves you the transfer rather than adding one.
How far is Hatston Pier from Kirkwall, and is there a shuttle?
It is about 4km (2.5 miles), which Cruise Orkney puts at a walk of 40 minutes to an hour. The road has little to look at.
There is a complimentary shuttle bus to the Kirkwall Travel Centre, running from 08:30 onwards, continuously on passenger demand, not to a timetable, and taking approximately seven minutes.
The last shuttle back leaves 60 minutes before the ship’s departure, or at 18:00 if the ship sails after 19:00. Free internet is available at Hatston Pier, along with a multi-lingual Meet and Greet information service.
Has Orkney capped cruise ship numbers or brought in a cruise levy?
Neither is in force, and the two things get reported as one thing.
What Orkney Islands Council agreed, in August 2023, is a cruise booking and confirmation policy that grades vessels into categories by passenger capacity — Category 1 is up to 500, rising to Category 5 for over 5,000 — and applies a daily allocation rule: ‘The maximum TOTAL for Hatston Pier and Kirkwall Bay Anchorage should not exceed a category sum of 5.’
In practice one very large ship fills the day’s allocation on its own, while a Category 3 and a Category 2 ship can share it. The council was explicit alongside it that ‘All cruise ships that currently call here in Orkney will continue to be able to do so’. It is a berth-allocation mechanism, not a passenger cap, 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, and no cruise levy is in force anywhere in Scotland. Orkney also decided against an overnight visitor levy. If you see an older simultaneous-passenger limit quoted for Orkney, that is historic, not current.
Do I need to book Maeshowe in advance?
Effectively yes, and this is the single thing that catches most people in Orkney.
Maeshowe can only be entered on a guided tour of limited capacity, departing from the Maeshowe Visitor Centre at Stenness village, not from the mound itself, with check-in 15 minutes before. Historic Environment Scotland’s own wording is ‘Due to limited capacity, it is strongly recommended to reserve your visit online to guarantee entry and avoid disappointment.’
Tours last one hour and run at 10am, 12 noon, 2pm and 4pm daily from April to September, and at 10am, 12 noon and 2pm from October to March. Adult tickets are GBP 10.00 online or GBP 11.00 walk-up.
Turning up at the cairn itself will not get you in.
How much does it cost to visit Skara Brae and the Ring of Brodgar?
Skara Brae is GBP 14.00 for an adult booked online, GBP 16.00 in person, GBP 8.50 for a child aged 7 to 15 online and GBP 11.00 concession online, with Historic Scotland members free. Skaill House next door is included in the summer.
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. The site is a 500-metre walk from the visitor centre on a path of mainly bound crushed stone.
The Ring of Brodgar is free — Historic Environment Scotland states it ‘is free to visit and open year-round’ — and so are the Standing Stones of Stenness. Prices seen 22 September 2026.
Can I see Orkney’s Neolithic sites without a tour?
Not realistically, inside a port day. Skara Brae is on the west coast at Sandwick, the Ring of Brodgar and the Stones of Stenness are on the isthmus between the lochs, and Maeshowe is nearby at Stenness.
They are spread across West Mainland with no practical public transport linking them in the time a ship gives you. Local operators are built for exactly this problem.
Tour Orkney runs a private 4.5-hour vehicle for up to eight from GBP 560 with all entry tickets included, picking up at Hatston, Kirkwall Pier or the tender landing point. GoOrkney runs small-group Highlights tours of 3.5 to 5.5 hours from GBP 125 per person with admission fees not included, picking up at both piers.
Both guarantee return to the ship — and the full comparison is in our Kirkwall shore excursion guide.
Is St Magnus Cathedral free, and what else can I do in Kirkwall on foot?
Free, in the cathedral’s own words: ‘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.
Directly opposite, the Orkney Museum in Tankerness House on Broad Street is free entry with a suggested GBP 5 donation, open Monday to Saturday 10:30 to 17:00. The ruined Bishop’s and Earl’s Palaces stand across the road, and the St Magnus Centre on Palace Road runs a free multi-lingual film and app.
That, with Albert Street and the harbour front, is a comfortable free half-day. We could not source an admission price or an opening season for the palaces, so we have printed neither.
How busy is Kirkwall, and when is the cruise season?
Busier than its size suggests, and the only published figure is a passenger count rather than a call count.
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’. An annual count of calls is not published on any page we read.
Neither are season dates — the harbour authority publishes no start or end month, including on its 2026 cruise page.
Historic Environment Scotland’s summer season, 1 April to 30 September with winter hours from 1 October, is the practical shape of it. That is the thing that will actually constrain your day.
Can I get to the Scapa Flow Museum on a port day?
Only on a long one, and it is a gamble on a short one. The museum is at Lyness on Hoy, and entry is free with a suggested GBP 5 donation.
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, and no bus fare, ferry fare or crossing time is published on any source we could reach.
The museum is closed altogether in January and February, and runs generally 09:30 to 16:15 from March to December. Budget half a day minimum once the ferry timings are counted.
How much is a taxi from Hatston Pier into Kirkwall?
Nobody publishes a fare, so we are not going to estimate one. Putting a number on it would manufacture a precision we don’t actually have.
What we can tell you is the supply. Taxis do meet ships at Hatston, and Orkney’s fleet is small — on a day when a 4,000-passenger ship is in, demand far exceeds it.
The complimentary shuttle covers the same 4km in approximately seven minutes and costs nothing. Use it, and keep the taxi question for a day when yours is the only ship in.
What should I wear in Orkney, and how much daylight will I have?
Wind-proof layers, and shoes you can walk 500 metres of crushed stone in. Wind is the defining feature here, not cold.
Orkney is treeless and exposed, and the Neolithic sites are all in open landscape — Brodgar and Stenness have no buildings at all, so there is nowhere to shelter. An umbrella will not survive, and sideways rain is possible in any month.
Daylight swings hard at 59 degrees north. Midsummer gives 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, and Historic Environment Scotland moves to winter hours on 1 October.
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