Hotels in Orkney

Choosing a base in Orkney is mostly a question of how far you want to drive and how much you want happening around you in the evening. The Mainland is compact enough that nowhere on it is more than about forty minutes from anywhere else, so almost any base works logistically. The real differences are in atmosphere and convenience.

Kirkwall makes the strongest case for a first trip. It holds the greatest concentration of rooms in the islands, from full-service hotels with restaurants and bars to small guest houses on the residential streets, and it is the only place where you can comfortably manage without a car. Buses run out to the main sites, the airport is minutes away, and the ferries to the northern isles leave from the harbour. It also means you can eat well within walking distance of your bed, which matters more than you might think when it is blowing hard outside.

Stromness appeals to a different instinct. Arriving on the Scrabster ferry and stepping straight onto the flagstone street is a fine introduction, and the town keeps a working harbour character that Kirkwall has partly outgrown. Rooms here are fewer and fill early, but you are twenty minutes from Skara Brae and the Brodgar monuments and right beside the Hoy ferry.

Out in the West Mainland, the country hotels and farmhouse rooms around Harray, Stenness and Birsay put you inside the World Heritage landscape, with lochs, dark skies and very little traffic. These suit archaeology-focused trips, anglers and anyone who wants to be at the Ring of Brodgar at sunrise without a drive. South Ronaldsay and the barrier-linked isles are quieter still and convenient for the Gills Bay crossing.

Book early whatever you choose. Orkney has a genuinely limited bed stock, and between the folk festival in late May, the St Magnus Festival in June and the cruise ship season, the good rooms disappear months ahead. Rates ease noticeably from October through to April, when you will also have the sites largely to yourself.