Rough ride?

When a storm comes along, and is in the wrong quarter, that patch of water can be very lively.

But the good news is that if it is too bad then Northlink will cancel anyway. It's only a 2 hour sailing from Scrabster for Thurso but Northlink don't sail in severe weather. It's more the passage off the Old Man of Hoy and getting into the lee of Graemsay which causes them difficulties.

It depends where the weather is as to whether the Pentland ferries route from Gills Bay to St Margaret's Hope is better.

In early September the chances of disruptive heavy weather are relatively small.

If seasickness is a concern, have you tried the SeaBands? They are a wrist band with a plastic button that goes over an accupressure point in your lower arm.

Every time I tried to arrange a ferry to Orkney, I ran up against a long drive to make the ferry which was a risk, wasting a night staying nearby, or risking weather cancellation or what might be worse - getting seasick.

My personal solution is to stick any island visits at the beginning or end of the trip so I don't have a rental car, and take Logan Air to the island and rent a car. I've done that to Harris/Lewis, Shetland(twice), and Orkney. All three have very reasonable car hires. I thought about it for Islay, but driving wasn't that hard and the ferries are a little more reliable to Islay, at least weather-wise. Ferry mechanical/staffing reliability has hit new lows as of late.

You can also use a multi-city flight route to cover ground or avoid one-way car hire charges. For example, our current trip will fly into Aberdeen, where we'll return a few weeks later, turn in the car, fly from Aberdeen to an island, rent a car there, then fly back to Edinburgh for a flight home.

Also, taking a car on the ferry is nearly as expensive as a flight if you can figure out a plan to not have two rental cars at once.

The one drawback of LoganAir is that their fares are very volatile and their schedule is calendar dependent. I was "watching" the fares last year, and I got a 15% off promotion email, which was followed by a 20% fare increase for a few weeks, then it dropped back down. I think they have a psychologist analyzing their web traffic :-)

Thank you all for your quick replies! We will be walking onto the ferry and I have sea bands. Good to go!👍

"We will be walking onto the ferry and I have sea bands. Good to go!"

Excellent! I hesitate to give advice on this since I do NOT have personal experience yet, but you might look at downloading the Stagecoach bus app. It supposedly gives real time updates on buses. It also looks like the ticket purchase on there is more expensive than buying directly from the driver which you can do with a contactless CC. (They are different ticket levels) Although I will be on a small group tour in a couple of weeks I'm arriving at the hotel on Burray a day ahead so plan to take the bus on my free day.

I am a very poor sailor and have also ordered ginger chews in case I have nausea. Ugh...I am such a wuss.

If you haven't seen it these are the Orkney bus timetables- https://www.orkney.gov.uk/Service-Directory/B/Bus-Services.htm

If you are intending to visit any of the Isles you will need to use the Inter Island ferries- https://www.orkneyferries.co.uk/

And this is the inter island air service, which is huge fun, a word you rarely hear used these days regarding civil aviation- https://www.loganair.co.uk/destinations/scotland/orkney-inter-island/

I just love going one way to an island by ferry then returning by air, or the other way round.

For a foot passenger, unless you are arriving in Thurso on the morning train, I suggest catching the Stagecoach #X99 bus from Inverness at 1420 as that takes you straight to the ferry terminal, in preference to the train to Thurso then taxi to Scrabster. There is very little leeway in the timetables for if the train is running late.

Note that the X99 "code shares" as a Scottish Citylink coach, so you can pre purchase tickets through their website- https://www.citylink.co.uk/

I'm unsure if the Stagecoach App is glitching, but the app and on bus fares should be the same. The only difference is that single/return and day tickets are issued by paper ticket on the bus. If you want a weekly ticket (which pays for itself on Day 4) then if purchased on the bus you also need to also buy a smartcard on bus for £1. That is not needed if purchased on the website/app. On the app ticket delivery is instant, but on the website to your smartcard purchases must be done a minimum of 3 days beforehand.

Keep the card as it can be used anywhere else in the UK on Stagecoach, and reportedly on other non Stagecoach transit systems across Scotland.

For anyone with just a day to spare likely the £8.70 Orkney day rider is the best value ticket, rather than singles/returns.

I took that ferry from Scrabster and walked on. I stayed in the only place to stay in Scrabster. I was told I could easily walk to the ferry from the hotel. Perhaps it was docked differently from normal, but it was a loooong walk pulling my small roller bag and took much longer than I was told it would take.

I think I should've stayed in Thurso the night before and taken a taxi from there all the way to the ferry dock. Another option would've been to go by taxi directly from the train station where I arrived in Thurso from Edinburgh to the later ferry the day before, but I wanted to be sure to arrive in Kirkwall before dark.

The ferry docks in Stromness and the X1 bus shows up there a bit later to go to Kirkwall. I took that bus. I didn’t rent a car but I did take a tour that went to most of the sights. I scheduled that tour at the Tourist Information right next to where the buses park in town. I spent 4 nights in Kirkwall, took a bus to the airport and flew to Aberdeen.

There was an older couple staying at the same hotel as me who had a very challenging beginning to their Orkney visit. They walked on an Orkney Ferries ferry that arrived late in the day at the Houton dock. I never quite understood how it happened, but they couldn't or didn’t take a bus or taxi to Kirkwall.

So they walked the whole 10 miles in the rain. According to Google Maps, that's 18 minutes by car, 59 minutes by bus and about 3.5 hours on foot. By contrast, the entire journey by ferry and bus from Scrabster to Stromness to Kirkwall takes about 2.5 hours.

That was in 2016, so a lot may have changed. The sea was calm. I hope that hasn't changed by the time you go.

Be sure to visit St. Magnus Cathedral and have some Cullen Skink and Bere Bannock for me. 😋

post by newsintervention5 reported as spam