Kirkwall

We stayed 3 nights at the Graemeshall House about 7 miles south of Kirkwall in 2022. It is adjacent to the Italian Chapel and at the entrance to Scapa Flow. Great host & accommodations. Our rental car provided easy access to all points on the Island.

A highlight of our time on the Orkneys was a private tour of Rousay with Patrick. I couldn't find a website for him, but if interested try his email ..... [email protected]. We spent the entire day w/ Patrick and saw some incredible viking era fortifications. The best part of the tour ...... we never encountered another tourist on Rousay. It was just the two of us & Patrick.

We had a memorable dinner at The Storehouse in Kirkwall. They also have rooms if you wish to stay in Kirkwall.

I've got reservations at The Ayre for the end of this month before an 8-night tour. I have not stayed there before. I also considered The Kirkwall Hotel and its sister accommodation the Shore Hotel. I had initially booked there but could only get 2 nights at the Kirkwall so had to go with 2 at the Shore. I was dismayed at the reviews of the Shore so when 4 nights in a row popped up at Ayre I went with it.

For the 8-night tour I am staying at The Sands on Burray. I did this tour in 2023 and we stayed there for 7 nights and it was wonderful! However, I won't have a car before the tour and The Sands is not well linked by public transit so that's why I wanted to stay my pre-tour nights in Kirkwall. From the Sands we toured the whole island with no problem at all. I love the staff at The Sands. The rooms were really nice and the restaurant was excellent.

We stayed at the kirkwell hotel for two nights in a harborview room. It is the " fanciest" hotel in town and it has a very nice restaurant. There is also a pub that gets out at 1:00 or 2:00 a.m. and did wake us up when everybody left! Kirkwall is a tiny town so I would want to be in town and not in the country.

It's been some years since we were in Orkney, but we did stay a few nights in the Kirkwall Hotel. Overall we liked it well enough. Not fancy, but mostly just fine and workable. It's not like there are a lot of choices.

Pluses: Great, central location, overlooking the working harbor. Decent restaurant and pub adjacent, both with good food. We still have fond memories of seared scallops the size of your fist (really) that just melt in your mouth (individually hand-harvested by SCUBA divers, as I recall...no wonder they were so expensive!). Those sure were dreamy...we still swoon over the experience and talk about going back just to eat them again.

Minuses: A little noise from the pub at night. Not awful, but we were on the top floor and could still hear it at times. I vividly recall the shower in our bathroom having very little in the way of water pressure or hot water, just a tiny, thin, luke-warm dribble (again, our top-floor room may have contributed to that). Even a decade later, when we have a shower experience that disappoints, the phrase "not as bad as Kirkwall" sometimes is uttered.

Your mileage may vary.

It is not true that the Sands at Burray does not have good public transit. Burray Village is on the hourly X1 route between all the ferry terminals - Stromness, Kirkwall and St Margarets Hope. At a weekend there is even a night bus at after midnight.
The core section of route from Kirkwall to Stromness is half hourly, and the other buses extend from Stromness to Skara Brae in daytime. So with a 30 minute change in Kirkwall you can get from Burray to Skara Brae. The way the duties work coming back It is usually a through service.

We also loved Graemeshall House. It’s a 15 minute-drive from Kirkwall. Beautiful manor house with 2 lovely, large rooms available. Quiet area. Gorgeous views. John, the host, is delightful. It was one of our favorite places we stayed in a 3 week trip to Scotland.

We stayed three nights at Benmora, a short walk from the town center. Very nice accommodations, breakfast, location, and host.

Walking distance is a necessity for us since we enjoy pubs, music, and whisky.