Ferries from Scotland to Orkney
Select Scotland as departure to compare the ferry routes to Orkney
Ferries to Orkney
Four ferries sail to Orkney. Three leave from the far north-east corner of the mainland, within a few miles of each other: Scrabster to Stromness, Gills Bay to St Margaret’s Hope and John o’ Groats to Burwick. The fourth is the long one, Aberdeen to Kirkwall. Which you take depends on whether you are driving up anyway, and on how much of the Pentland Firth you want to see.
Map: ferries to Orkney
The four crossings
The quickest is John o’ Groats to Burwick, about 40 minutes. The longest is Aberdeen to Kirkwall with NorthLink Ferries, around six hours for 134 miles, which spares you the drive to the top of Scotland and sails on to Shetland. Scrabster to Stromness, also NorthLink, is the classic route past the Old Man of Hoy; Gills Bay to St Margaret’s Hope is the short car ferry most islanders use.
Our take
Driving from the south, the Aberdeen boat saves a long day on the A9 and A99 and lands you in Kirkwall overnight. If you are already in Caithness or touring the North Coast 500, cross from Gills Bay or Scrabster; Scrabster for the view of Hoy, Gills Bay for the cheaper, shorter crossing. John o’ Groats is the day-trip option.
Mainland or South Ronaldsay?
Two ferries land on Mainland, Orkney’s largest island; the others dock on South Ronaldsay. It makes no difference to your plans: the Churchill Barriers link South Ronaldsay to Mainland by road, so Kirkwall is 20 minutes from St Margaret’s Hope.
On board and route maps
Prices and availability
Enter your departure port and dates below for live fares and sailing times to Orkney.
Orkney
Skara Brae, Neolithic village
Orkney is about 70 islands, of which the largest is confusingly called Mainland (VisitScotland). Around 7,000 people live here, 2,000 of them on Mainland, and visitors come for the beaches, the wildlife and some of the richest archaeology in Europe: Skara Brae, the Ring of Brodgar and Maeshowe are all within a short drive of Stromness.
Mainland is joined by road to four smaller islands; the rest are reached by the inter-island ferries of Orkney Ferries. Cars and bikes can be hired on the island, and there are taxis at the ports.
Useful for travellers to Scotland
Tips for ferry travellers
January 2024: I am planning a visit to Orkney in September from Canada. My on-line information tells me the ferry from John O’Groats is not in service, and that there are no large car ferries running in Scotland at the moment because of retrofitting the new ones from electric to diesel. Can anyone confirm or refute this information?
I hope you enjoyed your trip, if you made it ?
I usually visit Orkney every second year.
It’s lovely, but a 4 day trip for me is never enough time. 😢