Inverness / Orkney

I was going to suggest Rabbies tours. I haven't taken this exact one but have taken others. They are very good.

I'd suggest staying at the Premier Inn Centre River Ness. It's a five minute walk to the Rabbie's tours pickup point.

Thank you!

If you want to do day tours on Orkney, I've done a birding tour with Raymond Besant, an award winning photographer/cinematographer. His company is Orkney Nature. There is also another guy I follow on Facebook, Kinlay Francis who is Orkney Uncovered. I was doing an 8 night tour with Seymour Travels so knew we would see the Neolithic sites so did not book a day with Kinlay. Both Raymond and Kinlay have a presence on FB.

Have you watched the movie The Outrun with Saoirse Ronan? It took place on Papa Westray, a tiny island in the archipelago. Raymond did the underwater filming for that movie.

I love Orkney but it can be a little difficult to get to/from. There are sometimes disruptions with flights or ferries due to weather.

I've been twice, once in August 2023 and once in June/July 2025. For the first trip I flew from Aberdeen to Kirkwall and for the 2nd trip I flew from Edinburgh to Kirkwall. Both times I flew on to Shetland from Kirkwall and back to Aberdeen or Edinburgh from there. I flew LoganAir for all legs to/within/from Orkney and Shetland. I'll add that I'm a poor sailor so the overnight ferry from Aberdeen did not appeal to me! All my flights were on time or just slightly delayed (an hour).

And...not to be pedantic but the locals just call it Orkney, no plural. It IS made up of islands but the locals don't make Orkney plural.

Thanks very much!

I can't over emphasize how you need to allow buffer time in both directions, whether travelling by air or sea to Orkney.

Only this weekend a Loganair flight to Stornoway was physically unable to land there in a full gale, and had to return to it's airport of origin on the mainland.

And I've just been watching a video of someone caught in the last storm two or three weeks ago. Their first choice ferry (Pentland) was cancelled for three days, so they got the very last place on the last Northlink ferry out of Orkney before all services were cancelled for 48 hours. That ferry was unable to dock initially at Scrabster due to the wind and sea state and had to put back out to sea for a time, luckily berthing at the second attempt.

I know this is November/(December tomorrow) but I've encountered such conditions in July (in both directions). I've even been on Northlink unable to get out of Aberdeen due to high wave conditions at the harbour entrance- in January. We finally got to Kirkwall that time between 8 and 9 hours late.

"Only this weekend a Loganair flight to Stornoway was physically unable to land there in a full gale, and had to return to it's airport of origin on the mainland."

Stuart, I think an air ambulance was also trying to get in to Kirkwall at the same time and had to divert back to the mainland. The FB posts were saying it was a Beaufort Scale Force 10 which, for those that don't know (I know you do Stuart) is a 63-89mph wind with waves of 29-41 FEET!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaufort_scale

Okay, this post got me all excited because going to the Orkneys is one of the places I would really like to go. The British Airways Black Friday sale had round trip from Seattle to Inverness for less than $800 in economy must purchase by Dec. 3 Rabbies is also having a Black Friday Sale through Dec 3 with 20% off this tour. So, so tempting. Will I be able to resist? unsure.....
I do wonder why Black Friday (the shopping day after American Thanksgiving) is promoted by British companies but I suppose they know their market well.

Oh Carol!! I can't imagine you wouldn't love Orkney! It is SO cool!

I looked at the Rabbies tour and you really only have 1 full day on Orkney with the early evening on Day 1 after landing in St Margaret's Hope and the AM on Day 3. They will book your accommodation for a fee so you could easily do that at one of the hotels in Kirkwall.

IF you want a more in-depth tour of Orkney and the price fits your pocketbook, it looks like Mark Seymour has some spaces open on his Orkney tour in July.

https://www.seymourtravels.co.uk/orkney2026

Oh yes, I'd forgotten about the air ambulance. I didn't hear when or if they got the patient off island. I'm not sure if it was a fixed wing or helicopter.

I hope and pray it was a good conclusion.

I think it's the first time I've heard of an airlift being aborted like that. Usually they don't even try when it gets that wild.

Thanks to all for the great advice! All is helpful (as is par for this community!).

I'm still wondering if anyone has suggestions regarding flying from Boston to Inverness? Other options.

Looking at the flights from Boston Logan I can't see any other one stop options to INV than LHR or Amsterdam.

INV has no flights to Dublin (which may have been an option using Aer Lingus then Loganair), and Manchester isn't an option as Virgin only fly in there from JFK, Atlanta and Orlando.

Nor could you through book on Virgin anyway onto Loganair AFAIK

Thank you for checking flights. We'll have to decide on which option is best for us.

I'll just mention that flying thru Amsterdam to the UK is very easy. Since the UK is no longer in the EU you stay in the non-EU part of the Amsterdam airport so no passport control or security. You do passport control and customs on arrival in Scotland.

**Edited to correct wrong terminology

Pam, FYI, the UK was never in Schengen.

The UK is no longer in the EU.

Thanks, Frank. I'll correct my post.