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Best base for Orkney trip?
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CianMcLiam
CianMcLiam
1067 posts

Re: Best base for Orkney trip?
Mar 02, 2017, 20:10
Ravenfeather wrote:
I would recommend staying in Kirkwall.

It's pretty central on Mainland, only about 8 miles from the Ness of Brodgar/Stenness Maes Howe etc., and is closer to South Ronaldsay for Tomb of the Eagles. It also has by far a bigger range of places to eat & drink, and get supplies than Stromness, and if you wanted to visit some of the other islands the majority of inter-island ferry connections leave from Kirkwall harbour (only Hoy & Rousay sail from different terminal's).

Taking the car on inter-island ferries is expensive but there is cycle hire in Kirkwall, and it only costs you the fee for a foot passenger if you take the bike, you can see quite a bit of the the other islands by bicycle during a day trip, plus the roads on them are really quite! The travel/tourist information centre in Kirkwall has a leaflet with all of the ferry timetables which is useful if you are thinking of visiting the other islands.

There are no shortage of wonderful places to visit on Orkney so I'm sure you'll have a fantastic time wherever you go. If you are visiting during the summer though I'd suggest pre-booking a visit to Maes Howe as often it gets fully booked up due to block bookings by cruise ships, and Maes Howe is really not one of those places you want to miss!


Great, thanks a million for all the info. Booking Maeshowe in the morning!
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