Another Scotland plan including some island bagging

Sounds wonderful - I'm so envious!

jjgurley, I agree with wasleys that it does sound wonderful! And how have I never heard about Shetland: Scotland's Wondrous Isles before? I know what I will be watching next.

I'm sure you will have a incredible trip. I'm very jealous. :-)

There was a new travel guide published in August called Shetland Your Essential Travel Guide by Laurie Goodlad with Misa Hay contributing. I ordered directly from their website, https://shetlandwithlaurie.com/

TBH, I've just flipped thru it as I'm going to France next week and didn't want to hurt my brain with too much info, hahahaha!! Since you've visited previously it might not add much to your knowledge base, though.

Are you giving yourselves a night in Glasgow coming/going? I also follow a FB page called Flight Delays and Cancellations Orkney/Shetland following the flights from both airports to the mainland.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1952704408270771

I might consider doing your 3 nights in Kirkwall (that you have after Stromness,) first in case you have a travel hiccup and need to catch up unless that messes up with ferry schedules.

My mouth has been watering looking at the treats on the FB site for the Peerie shop cafe on the Esplanade in Lerwick!

I hope you will do a Trip Report! I will be returning to Orkney and Shetland in late June 2025.

I have a 4 1/2 hour connection in GLA so only a full day of delay will cause problems. I'm going with the "we've always had good weather" theory. I think Foula and Fair Isle are the biggest risks for cancellation, so I need to have backup accommodations if one is cancelled. Maybe I should rent a camper van.

Foula and Fair Isle are the very high risk destinations. The weather changes on a dime out there, and those are extremely vulnerable flights. I would do either or on any trip, not both.

It tells it's own story that Air Task don't take your money until they know the flight is running on the day, due to the very high number of cancellations and retimings. The plus side is that Air Task run relief flights after a day of cancellations, including combined Fair Isle and Foula flights when circumstances require.

Having used all the Orkney airfields there is no way on earth that I would do a "Fly back to Kirkwall, then on to Sumburgh, drive to Tingwall via market for provisioning and flying to Foula for two nights." journey in one day.

If the Kirkwall to Sumburgh flight is at 1140 on your day there is the possibility of catching the 0845 boat from Westray, arrives KWI 1025, then a quick journey out to KWI airport IF the ferry was on time. But the risk is of both ferry and flight cancellation.
For my liking I would take the last ferry or flight back to KWI the previous night. Ideally I would choose a night when the KWI to Lerwick ferry was running, as you also need the KWI to Sumburgh flight to be pretty much on time.
That transfer to my liking just has far too many huge red flags in it.

The previous iteration of the plan had coming back to Kirkwall from Westray the night before, but I hate to check into back into an accommodation for just 12 hours (although I do it all the time if it's on a route from point to point). I wish the cancellation data was available. Maybe I'll write a script that checks FlightAware and keeps a record.

I also figure if the weather is okay for Foula, the chances of it being okay for Fair Isle are improved.

The whole plan is a little risky, since there are no "easy days" to compensate for problems. We alternate May trips between Scotland and Ireland, and next year is Ireland, so this trip is 2026 or 2028 (this trip and Borders trip), and flight/ferry schedules (and maybe routes) will no doubt change in ways that will require adjustments. The LSI/FIE flight might return, Loganair might be acquired, all sorts of possibilities. Maybe we'll all be doing virtual tours while huddled in our air conditioned shelters :-)

I have zero pointers but massive amounts of admiration. I hope it all works!

Writing this from the MV Hjaltland on the way back to Aberdeen from Lerwick. Our two week trip to Shetland was hugely enhanced by your previous trip reports, so thank you for those! You already know that the flights you plan to Fetlar and Fair Isle could be affected by weather. I guess you could concentrate on Orkney and Shetland and save Barra and the Uists for another trip, but I imagine that your sense of adventure coupled with a degree of flexibility will see you through.

The new guidebook to Shetland mentioned above is excellent and despite having visited previously we found it very useful.

I might take a leaf from your book and post a trip report when home in Skye.
Jacqui

For Canna there is a new day trip option on a Sunday in this year's winter timetable. I have just noticed it as it has been requested this weekend.

There is a direct request only sailing from Mallaig at 0900 on each Sunday arriving at 1105, and leaving back to Mallaig at 1130.

Both outward and inbound sailings have to be requested by 1600 on the Saturday afternoon. But you can also request the vessel to wait at Canna until 1325 thus giving you 2 hours 20 minutes ashore- time enough to explore the entire island (as has happened this week).

Anyone can request that option- so it in theory is possible for the ship to do the return sailing for just one person! Effectively a charter sailing for £12.90!!

On arrival back in Mallaig at 1530, the ship then does it's only winter Sunday sailing of the day to Armadale (Skye) at 1600.

That sailing back from Canna also connects with the afternoon train to Fort William, connecting with the Caledonian Sleeper.

Maybe there's hope for a less convoluted summer schedule. I've sort of abandoned the Small Isles because of the schedule machinations, opting for Uist/Barra, Okney's small isles, and Shetland outliers. I thought we could visit them via cruise when I'm too old to drive (just a few years away).

That sounds like a very good idea, jjgurley. Just out of curiousity, how old is "too old to drive"? ㋡

I look at 80 as the magic number for most car rentals. I guess I could let my wife drive...

That's nice that you have another driver to fall back on. It's one of the few disadvantages of traveling solo.

Speaking of island bagging, have you seen this excellent book by the people who run the Walk Highlands website. It's one of the most 'well thumbed' books in our B&B guest library. Well worth checking out for some of the lesser well islands.

Looking in my County Library Catalogue there is also a sister volume to that book for England and Wales- https://cwflibraries.org.uk/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=331199

We don't really see anyone on here looking for the islands south of the Border, of which there are more than you might imagine, many take a degree of time and patience to get to, especially the Welsh ones.

Just one example, for anyone visiting Liverpool, Chester or the Wirral is Hilbre Island (a place only really known to the locals)- most people use the singular, but there are in fact three islands in the chain.
Easily reached on foot at Low Tide.
The Islands have a friend's group whose Patron is Ann Cleeves- who wrote the Vera and Shetland detective novels

I ordered Skygirl's book this morning. I'm hoping it helps me rule out targets rather than adding dozens to my bucket list. Too little time for too many destinations.