Orkney and Impact of Cruise Ship Visitors and Seeing the Sights

It may depend on when you visit in May. There are only 2 days with cruise ships docking at Kirkwell before the 15th, according to Cruisetimetables. After that there's a ship almost daily. Only 1 ship per day, but that could be anywhere from 2,000 to 5,000 passengers during the day.

Have a look at this website which lists crusie ship arrivals for 2026 and the number of passengers. Not all are megaliners with thousands of passengers. Many are quite small and you will hardly feel their presence.

If you are planning to spend several days on Orkney, you can always catch a ferry to either Rousay or Hoy on days when one of the massive ships is in port. (They don't get there!) Avoid Kirkwall and popular places like Ring of Brodgar, Skara Brae etc especially in the morning and Italian Chapel in trhe afternoon, when all the coaches from the cruise liner will be heading that way.

Orkney is special and with a bit of thought it is possible to avoid the worst of the hoards - they don't venture far and do tend to stick together.

Introducing a tourism tax (or whatever you want to call it) is something which is being discussed across Scotland as there is now National Legislation allowing for it- but only in each case after local consultation.

Another way of doing it would be like New Zealand where you pay a NZ$100 (I think) tourism tax just as part of your NzETA fee.

The tourism tax proposals includes large parts of Argyll and Bute, including Mull. Places which see very few cruise ships (although Craignure, Oban and Tobermory do see smaller ships), but they are just like Orkney in seeing way more tourists than local population.

There are many difficult questions about a place like Mull. Why not stay in Oban which has a far bigger tourist infrastructure, rather than on Mull?
Why not book local car rental, so you travel over as foot passenger, or even use the local pretty good public transport?
If that deterred some people from visiting Mull, it really may not be a bad thing.

Visitors who book the ferries to Mull months and months ahead, because their trip and their car are so "vital". I really don't think people realise how fundamentally difficult that makes life for the locals who need to travel on what really is vital business at short notice and find nothing but full ferries, especially at times of disruption.
I, personally, would like to see a two tier pricing structure on all CalMac ferries, and also many more spaces held back for locals.

I haven't heard any such talk about Skye, but that is a place which would really benefit from a tax- especially if it was a meaningful sum. It would provide revenue to improve the roads for instance, or maybe green transport initiatives, or even community initiatives for the locals.

It is extremely noticeable on this forum the very limited itineraries most people have on Orkney- going to exactly the same few places as the cruise ship tourists.

It seems to be de rigeur here to fly in to Mainland Orkney for a day or two, as a side event, visit a few key archaeological sites and the Italian Chapel, then move on to elsewhere in Scotland. Oblivious it seems to all the out isles (apart from maybe Rousay), none of which ever gets busy, or to other aspects of the history of Orkney.

But yes, the vast majority of places on Orkney are open all year, or almost so. Even Kirkwall is a totally different place from October to Easter when there are very few fellow tourists (cruise ship or otherwise). Yes the weather is likely to be poorer in the off season, but that is life on islands where they are physically located. Visiting Orkney off season spreads the tourist load, and actually helps keep places open. Hotels can't stay open on the trade of maybe 4 or 5 months. It is a thoughtful way to travel- and yes I have been there in deep off season.

I spent 11 nights on Orkney in June/July and 11 nights on Shetland in July 2025. I also spent 8 or 9 nights each on Orkney and Shetland in 2023. In my opinion, the biggest impacts were in the towns of Kirkwall, Orkney and Lerwick Shetland on the cruise ship docking days. It took some planning to get lunch on days when cruise ships were in town but if you head in early to restaurants or bakeries then you can work around the passengers. I also found shopkeepers asking if I was from a cruise ship and I was quick to point out I was staying on Orkney for "x" nights so they would know I was dumping some money into the economy.

Also on Orkney, the neolithic site of Skara Brae is busier on cruise days with buses coming from the cruise ships but they don't stay long so there is always a gap in visitor numbers. If you either get ahead of a bus or hang back you can visit without as many people. There is a small museum at Skara Brae (a couple of rooms) which does not have good directional flow so you might skip that if crowded and come back. The small cafe there gets busy and but has fairly good food.

Other than that, Maeshowe Chambered Cairn is a timed entry-go-with-a-venue-guide to get in so those numbers are regulated and there was no issue with cruise ship passengers. The 2 other chambered cairns I've visited on both trips, Unstan Chambered Cairn and Cuween Chambered Cairn, had very few visitors. Broch of Gurness and some of the other sights on Orkney are too far for the Cruise ship passengers to visit. The Italian Chapel (built by Italian POWs in WWII) is tiny and can get busy if one of the cruise ship buses is there. HOWEVER, the ticket attendants there are very cognizant of that and will tell you that a cruise ship bus is expected in 20 minutes or whatever so you can get in, get your pictures and be ready to leave when the big bus arrives.

On Shetland I noticed no other sights with high visitor numbers except downtown Lerwick on a cruise ship docking day.

To me if you have a couple of days then you can do your sights in Kirkwall on a non-cruise ship day and do the outer sights on a day when they are docked. Skara Brae needs timed entries as does Maeshowe.

I would want at least 3 nights on Orkney, more is better. Transit can be disrupted due to weather (wind, rain, fog) so it's best to visit allowing some flex time on either side of your transit to Orkney....what I mean is don't plan to catch a flight home from Scotland the day of or immediately after you return to mainland Scotland. Give yourselves a day or two.

Bottom line, yes, you are overthinking. Orkney is absolutely astonishing. Go in May and stay as many nights as you can.

Thank you for all of the responses. Great information that will help us plan our trip.

On Shetland I noticed no other sights with high visitor numbers except downtown Lerwick

Last September, we arrived at Jarlshof for opening time. and had it to ourselves. By the time we left, there were 5 coaches in the car park for Jarlshof and nose to tail guided parties going round the site.... We passed more coaches as we left. `The coaches tend to arrive in the morning and don't stop that lomg.

Oh yikes on the tours at Jarlshof. We did get there in the AM in July but it wasn't crowded with buses. There was a cruise ship in because I overheard American voices up at Sumburgh Head talking loudly about golf and shopping and keeping to the middle of the paved path. The rest of the visitors were looking at the Puffins which were 10 feet away.

Because I've watched one video, I'm getting tons of videos of the start of the Up Helly Aa festival. They started in Scalloway on Friday.

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1Djy31EWPz/

Orkney has a population of 22,000 which is why the cruise ships coming in can feel overwhelming. The tours to the different places generally are spread around though.

If you are staying in the islands though there is a change in the evening when Kirkwall empties as the passengers go back to the ships, and although during season still busy with people out and about it can feel like you have the town all to yourself.

Looking at the video of Scalloway you wouldn't believe the amount of snow the whole of Shetland has had in the last 10 days- for the second week on the row almost all Church services have been cancelled across Shetland, and tonight a 70mph storm has blown in, forcing the cancellation of all ferries, and probably flights as well. I've had exactly the same happen at Lerwick UHA.

Quite unusual for them to have that much snow, where essentially everything stopped.

We thought so, but our guide was helpful and looked up which days the largest cruise ships came in so as we could avoid them. He said it was a lot of fuss over nothing and the ships only go to a few well known sites anyway. Thanks Ciaran!

Thank you!

Hi, SC,

If you're planning to visit in Orkney in May, the Orkney Folk Festival (one of the best!) usually takes place on the third full weekend of May. It runs Thursday through Sunday. They normally get hundreds of attendees for the festival. Many of them will be local to the islands, but as the visitors from outwith the islands will require accommodation, lodging will be scarce and at a premium that weekend.

On the other hand, if you love traditional and contemporary folk music from many nations, with usually a strong Scottish representation, then Orkney is definitely the place to be on that weekend!

Best wishes for your travels!

Mike (Auchterless)