My wife and I are considering a side trip to the Orkney Islands on our next trip to Europe. We'll be arriving at Heathrow about 9AM, and had originally planned to go straight to St. Pancras station and take the Eurostar to Paris. After seeing a short feature on TV about the Orkneys, we thought it might be fun to take a couple of days and fly up to Scotland and take a quick tour of the archeological sites on the Orkney Islands, and then back to London and on to gay Paree.
From what I can gather, however, there is no direct air service to any of the Orkney Islands, and the closest airport is Aberdeen. Going that way would make the time spent on this "side trip" a bit more than we would want to spend, and I'm thinking that the Orkneys will have to wait until the following trip. Any suggestions?
Posted by
New York City, NY, USA
5678 posts
Yes, you're right it's a long trip up to Orkney, but it is so worth. Not only are the archeological sites wonderful, there are the birds, and if you're traveling in summer, very long days with the sun setting as late as 11 PM and back up again in about 4 hours. When we most recently, we flew direct from Madison and it was indeed a marathon. My flight was through Gatwick to Edinburgh, to Kirkwall with a stop in Inverness to pick up mail. One of the fun things was the trolly that came down the aisle handing on the whisky on the flights from Edinburgh and from Inverness. We came back via ferry and train. If you want to think about it for another trip try to plan it for summer. June is when the migrating birds show up. Oh and there are wonderful jewelry designers on Orkney and an artist does fantastic tapestries. Pam
Posted by
US Pacific Northwest
10344 posts
As Pamela says, actually, there is air service. Here's a website on that, and the additional links imbedded in the site should be helpful as well: http://www.visitorkney.com/gettinghere.asp
Posted by
Charlotte, NC, USA
3428 posts
Orkney is a lovely place. I bought some great earrings designed by one of the jewelers Pamela mentions. they were based on the standing stones in Brodegar Ring. Skara Brae is amazing. There is a VERY LONG day trip you can do from Inverness by bus to Orkney. It leaves around 6:00-6:30 am and returns about 9:00pm. Though it sounds like you might could fly all the way up. Personally, I love Scotland so much that I would want to plan another whole trip just so I could work this in- great excuse!
Posted by
New York City, NY, USA
5678 posts
Hah, Toni is right. You need a whole trip to Scotland. You can check out the archeological wonders of Orkney and then check out the beauty and history of the highlands to head for the west coast where you can explore the wild life of Mull. Check out the PBS special on the Eagles of Mull. Pam
Posted by
Pittsburgh, PA, USA
2722 posts
Yes, the Orkneys are pretty remote, which is part of their charm. To get there and back from London, you are going to have to spend most of two days. If there is any place that's worth two days of travel, it's the Orkneys (it really is an incredible place), but as a general rule, I try to avoid spending so much time in transit. If you are looking for a side trip, there are a zillion that would be way more convenient. But by all means, plan a trip to Scotland that includes the Orkneys.
Posted by
Monein, Pyrenees, France
425 posts
If you fly to Orkney (or Shetland) try and use the same airline for all legs of the journey. If you get fogged in at Aberdeen (and that DOES happen - even in mid summer) you may need an overnight hotel. E.G. If you have used EasyJet to Aberdeen and are waiting for a fogged-in BA flight to the islands, it will probably be YOU that picks up the tab. I once flew from Sumburgh to Aberdeen on a Shell turbo-prop plane borrowed by BA.