5-Day Orkney Islands Tour from Edinburgh Including the Scottish Highlands

Venture to the far-flung Orkney Islands on a 5-day tour from Edinburgh with 3-star accommodation included, and visit top Highland towns and attractions, too! With a friendly guide, travel through the Highlands, visiting Loch Ness and Glencoe, and pass John o’Groats on route to the stunning Orkney Island archipelago. With Kirkwall (Orkney’s capital) as your base, discover the area’s historical highlights such as Lamb Holm Italian Chapel and the Standing Stones of Stenness. On route back to Edinburgh, call in at the 15th-century ruins of Ardvreck Castle and Culloden Moor, an important Jacobite battlefield. Overnight stays in Inverness and Ullapool are included, plus two nights in Kirkwall.

Your 5-day tour follows a route from Edinburgh through the Highlands and John o’Groats to the Orkney Islands, a remote archipelago of 70 or so small islands adrift off Scotland’s northernmost tip. Just 16 of the Orkney Islands are inhabited, with most of its tiny population residing on Mainland island. As such, the windswept countryside is unspoiled, rugged and a haven for wildlife. Besides the incredible scenery and wildlife, the Orkney Islands are history rich, too, with a Viking past and several stone circles that hark back to prehistoric days.

See scenery, historical sites and wildlife during your time in the Orkney Islands, as well as several exciting Scottish towns on your way to and from Edinburgh. Spend a night in Inverness — capital of the Highlands — followed by two nights in Kirkwall in the Orkney Islands, and your final night in Ullapool, northwest Scotland. Nights are spent in centrally located 3-star guesthouse or hotel accommodation that’s well placed for you to explore the towns independently between excursions. Entrance fees, lunches and dinners are at your own expense throughout the tour.

• Transport by air-conditioned minivan
• Driver/guide
• Round-trip ferry to the Orkney Islands
  
• Meals as per itinerary (B=breakfast, L=lunch, D=dinner)
• 4 nights of accommodation

• Hotel pickup and drop-off
• Entrance fees