orkeny

You don't need a tour for Kirkwall. The ship will dock at the centre of town (I saw them when I was there in May). You can easily walk around Kirkwall. It is well worth it. The other sights (Maes Howe, Skara Brae, etc) require a car or a tour to reach.

Yes, of course you can tour Kirkwall on your own, but what a pity to get to Orkney and not at least see Maeshowe, the Stones of Stenness and the Ring of Brogdar. If you are on a cruise then there will be tours of these sites. I would recommend that you as the cruise operators. And go to Visit Orkney's site on getting around. If worse comes to worse contact one of the taxi companies to take you at least to Maeshowe. It's only 12 miles. And there are 17 tour companies listed. Now not all will have appropriate tours, but I refuse to believe that you can find nothing. Pam

Don't miss Skara Brae. The other sites are also interesting, but Skara Brae is unique - the remains of an ancient village. The only other one that I know of is in Cornwall - but Skara Brae is much more extensive.

We finally found a taxi company in orkney that is available. Bob's taxi, hopefully this will be a good experience.

I was in Orkney for three nights in April 2012. The best thing is to rent a car and take the car ferry over so that you can drive yourself around the island. It is easy to do, there are good maps available in Orkney that mark all of the historic and archeological sites. The countryside is very, very beautiful.