Orkney and Shetland: Neolithic Orkney, Mousa and the puffins of Sumburgh

Arrive in Kirkwall

Kirkwall Airport to your hotel in Kirkwall, then St Magnus Cathedral

• Dinner
• Stay in Kirkwall
• Drive about 15 min

Afternoon

Fly into Kirkwall Airport (KOI) on one of the short domestic flights from Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen or Inverness; we meet every flight that lands by mid-afternoon and drive the ten minutes into town. Kirkwall is Orkney's main town, small enough to cross on foot, and our hotel is in the centre, so the harbour, the shops on the paved main street and the cathedral are a few minutes' walk away. Late in the afternoon your See Sight Tours guide walks the group to St Magnus Cathedral, the red and yellow sandstone church founded in 1137 by Earl Rognvald in memory of his murdered uncle Magnus. Next to it stand the ruins of the Bishop's and Earl's Palaces.

Evening

After a short briefing on the week, with the ferry plan and what to pack for the islands, we sit down together to a welcome dinner of Orkney produce: local beef or lamb, seafood from Scapa Flow and Orkney cheese.

Included

• Pick-up at Kirkwall Airport (KOI)
• Walk to St Magnus Cathedral with your guide
• Welcome briefing
• Welcome dinner

Neolithic Orkney: Skara Brae, Maeshowe and the stones

Kirkwall to Skara Brae, then Stromness, Maeshowe, the Ring of Brodgar and the Stones of Stenness

• Breakfast and lunch
• Stay in Kirkwall
• Drive about 1.5 h

Afternoon

We drive on to Stromness, the old harbour town where ships once took on water before crossing the Atlantic, for a sit-down lunch.

Evening

In the afternoon we go inside Maeshowe on a timed guided tour, crouching down the low passage into a chambered tomb lined so that the midwinter sunset shines down it, with Norse runes carved on the walls. Late in the day, when the light is low, we walk the Ring of Brodgar, where 27 standing stones survive of a circle of about 60, between two lochs, and stand among the Stones of Stenness.

Included

• Skara Brae and its visitor centre, near opening
• Sit-down lunch in Stromness
• Timed guided tour inside Maeshowe
• The Ring of Brodgar and the Stones of Stenness with your guide

The Italian Chapel, the Churchill Barriers and a free afternoon

Kirkwall to Lamb Holm and the Churchill Barriers, then back to Kirkwall

• Breakfast
• Stay in Kirkwall
• Drive about 1 h

Morning

A slower morning, then a short drive south to Lamb Holm. Here Italian prisoners of war, held on Orkney to build the Churchill Barriers, turned two Nissen huts into a chapel between 1943 and 1945, painting the curved interior to look like carved stone and brick. We go in before the busier late morning. The barriers themselves are four causeways laid across the eastern entrances to Scapa Flow after a German submarine sank HMS Royal Oak in the anchorage in 1939; from the road you still see the rusted hulls of the blockships sunk to close the sounds. We follow them south over Burray to the beach at the far end and on to St Margaret's Hope, a small village on South Ronaldsay, for a coffee.

Afternoon

We are back in Kirkwall by lunchtime and the afternoon is yours: the Orkney Museum, the cathedral tower tour, a walk round the Peedie Sea, or a distillery visit.

Included

• The Italian Chapel on Lamb Holm, entry included
• The Churchill Barriers and the Scapa Flow blockships with your guide
• Coffee stop in St Margaret's Hope

Optional experiences

• A distillery tour and tasting in Kirkwall, booked at a set price when you book
• The St Magnus Cathedral tower tour (limited places, booked ahead)

Hoy and Rackwick, then the overnight ferry to Shetland

Kirkwall to Houton, ferry to Lyness on Hoy, Rackwick, then back to Kirkwall and the overnight ferry to Lerwick

• Breakfast, lunch and dinner
• Stay in Overnight ferry to Lerwick
• Drive about 2 h

Morning

Check out after breakfast; your bags stay in the van all day. We drive to Houton and take the small car ferry across Scapa Flow to Lyness on Hoy, Orkney's hilliest island. At Lyness, once the naval base for the Home Fleet in both world wars, the Scapa Flow Museum tells the story of the anchorage and of the German fleet scuttled there in 1919.

Afternoon

Then we cross the island's moorland, past the Dwarfie Stane, a tomb cut into a single block of sandstone around 5,000 years ago, to Rackwick, a bay of huge boulders under red cliffs, where we stop for lunch. From Rackwick a path climbs over the headland to the viewpoint for the Old Man of Hoy, a 137 m sea stack.

Evening

Back on Mainland by early evening, we have dinner in Kirkwall and board the NorthLink overnight ferry at Hatston, which sails late in the evening and reaches Lerwick early next morning. Each twin share has its own cabin with a bathroom.

Included

• Return car ferry Houton to Lyness
• Scapa Flow Museum at Lyness
• The Dwarfie Stane and Rackwick Bay with your guide
• Lunch on Hoy and dinner in Kirkwall
• Overnight NorthLink ferry to Lerwick in a private cabin with its own bathroom

Lerwick, the Shetland Museum and Fair Isle knitting

Lerwick harbour to the Shetland Museum, Commercial Street and Clickimin Broch

• Breakfast
• Stay in Lerwick
• Drive about 15 min

Morning

The ferry docks in Lerwick early, and after breakfast on board there is no rush: your room is held from arrival, and we leave bags at the hotel. Lerwick grew as a trading harbour for the Dutch herring fleets in the 17th century, and the stone lodberries, old merchants' houses built with their feet in the sea, still line the waterfront. Your guide walks you along Commercial Street and the narrow lanes up the hill, then to the Shetland Museum and Archives on Hay's Dock, where boats hang in the boat hall and the textile galleries show knitting from shawls fine enough to pass through a wedding ring to the Fair Isle patterns named after Shetland's most remote inhabited island. In the late morning a local knitter shows the group how Fair Isle colourwork is made, two colours at a time, and you can try a few rows.

Evening

The afternoon is free to rest after the night at sea. At the end of the day we walk out to Clickimin Broch, an Iron Age tower on a loch at the edge of town.

Included

• Guided walk of Lerwick: Commercial Street and the lodberries
• The Shetland Museum and Archives with your guide
• Fair Isle knitting session with a local knitter
• Evening walk to Clickimin Broch

Mousa Broch, Sumburgh Head puffins and Jarlshof

Lerwick to Sandwick and the Mousa boat, then south to Sumburgh Head and Jarlshof, and back to Lerwick

• Breakfast and lunch
• Stay in Lerwick
• Drive about 1.5 h

Afternoon

Lunch is a sit-down meal in the south mainland. In the afternoon we drive to Sumburgh Head, where the lighthouse built by Robert Stevenson in 1821 stands above cliffs used by puffins from about May to mid-August, along with guillemots, razorbills and fulmars; the puffins often sit within a few metres of the path. Below the headland is Jarlshof, where Bronze Age houses, an Iron Age broch and wheelhouses, Norse longhouses and a 16th-century laird's house stand on one shore.

Evening

We are back in Lerwick in the early evening.

Included

• Return boat to Mousa and Mousa Broch
• Sit-down lunch in the south mainland
• Sumburgh Head lighthouse, visitor centre and RSPB seabird cliffs
• Jarlshof with your guide

The Eshaness cliffs and home from Sumburgh

Lerwick to Mavis Grind and Eshaness, then south to Sumburgh Airport

• Breakfast
• Drive about 3 h

Morning

On the last morning we drive north into Northmavine, crossing Mavis Grind, a strip of land so narrow that the North Sea and the Atlantic are a stone's throw apart. At Eshaness the cliffs are the remains of an old volcano, cut by the Atlantic into stacks, arches and blowholes; the lighthouse stands on the edge, and on a still morning you can walk the cliff top to the Holes of Scraada, a collapsed sea cave. We give it about an hour and a half on foot.

Afternoon

From Eshaness it is just under two hours south to Sumburgh Airport (LSI), at the southern tip of Shetland, with a stop in Brae or Lerwick for lunch on your own. Your guide sees you to the airport and checks your flight before saying goodbye. Book a flight from Sumburgh leaving after about 4 pm; flights connect to Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Included

• The Eshaness cliffs and lighthouse with your guide
• Mavis Grind
• Drop-off at Sumburgh Airport (LSI)