Best route from Stromness (Orkney) to Edinburgh

[LadyGreySpillsTheTea]

The title says it all, but here are the details:

In August we want to get from Stromness to Edinburgh. We will set off on a Saturday morning and need to be at Edinburgh airport by 4pm on Sunday for a flight at 6pm.

We do not have a rental car and do not want to fly from Orkney down to Edinburgh. That leaves a combo of ferries, coach and train. On the way there we will be going by train to Aberdeen and then the evening ferry to Kirkwall, but would really like a different route back.

So that sort of leads us to the ferry from Stromness to Scrabster, then a 1.5 mile gap (taxi?) to Thurso, then either the bus or train to Inverness and bus or train to Edinburgh. Info websites like Rome2Rio are quoting 10 to 15 hours, so we’re wondering about spending the Saturday night in Inverness and splitting the journey into two. This raises the following questions:

Is it utterly stupid to try and travel from Inverness to Edinburgh on the Sunday morning, in time to get to the airport by 4pm? I’m thinking about train cancellations and delays. Our experience for public transport in the UK on Sunday has been less than stellar. Should we instead swallow a long day travelling on the Saturday and stay that night in Edinburgh instead?

Is Inverness a nice enough place to spend the night?

The train from Thurso leaves at 8.34am on Saturday but the ferry from Orkney only arrives at 8am, with a taxi journey between one and the other. Booking this would be stupid, right?

The coach from Thurso to Inverness is at 9.20am, which is more realistic. We tried to find it on Stagecoach but it wasn’t showing any buses after 16 July. Can you only book a Stagecoach a month in advance, or are we doing something wrong? The bus route looks really scenic on the map, following the coast - is it?

Is there a more sensible route that we’re missing? What do locals do when they travel from Orkney to Edinburgh? Do they do it in one day or split into two? Or do they just go screw it and fly down?

Is there any reason you don’t want to fly? The downside of spending a night in Edinburgh in august is that due to the festivals the hotel prices will be £££££
inverness is nice enough to break a journey. The town centre is no oil painting but along the river is pretty.

You would need to book a taxi in advance from the ferry to Thurso - there’s no guarantee any taxis will be waiting and people have already been posting looking for lifts between the two as taxis are fully booked.

As a foot passenger you’ll get off the ferry really quickly but I think that’ll be tight. You might be best posting on one of the Orkney Facebook pages for advice or theirs a northlink cabins shared cabins fb group that might answer.

Journey from Thurso down is brilliant but I’d just do it all in one day? No need to stop in Inverness overnight?

And locals I know in Thurso just do the journey in a day. Orcadians I know get the ferry to Aberdeen if going to Edinburgh / south or fly.

The X99 bus goes from Scrabster ferry terminal to Inverness.

Thanks for the helpful answers. Coronation, we’d rather not fly for two reasons: firstly, the flights are pretty expensive, and we’ve already spent a bomb on this holiday by inexplicably forgetting the festival existed and paying huge amounts for the flights to the UK and some potentially dodgy (student) accommodation so we can get a few festival days - we were hoping that arriving early enough on the Saturday would give us another evening of shows, but you’re right that a hotel for one Sat night won’t be easy or cheap. And the second reason is environmental, trying to cut down on flights within a country. We also want to see some of that top bit of Scotland along the way, so not sure if bus or train is more scenic.

Mrs: thanks for confirming the need to book the taxi in Thurso. We’ll either do that or check out the X99 to Inverness recommended by Tratjymp.
DH hates travelling by bus, he’s pushing for the train, and he just put his foot down on doing the whole thing in one day after hearing that it would take 10-15 hours. Clearly the people of Orkney are made of sterner stuff!

Aorry Mts, you said the Thursoers do the whole thing in one day while Orkneyers fly or take the Aberdeen ferry. We could do the latter, but just fancy a change since we’re going up that route. And don’t local islanders get reduced flights (which is entirely justifiable), making it more affordable for them?

I’m with your husband re. The bus!!

Personally I’d get the ferry to Aberdeen then train South but if that’s really not what you’re after then you will make the train at 0834 with a pre booked taxi, much nicer travelling by train than stagecoach bus.
I would take train to Inverness, get there at lunch time and have some lunch. Then get a train to somewhere like Perth or Stirling and stay the night. Long day of travelling but without flying really no quick way to do the journey. I wouldn’t stay in Inverness as I think for a Sunday morning you’re just a bit too far away from Edinburgh for a flight at 4pm. Stirling has a castle and Wallace monument, not a massive amount to do in Perth but a nice little city. Will be a lot cheaper than staying in Edinburgh when the fringe is on, most hotels will possibly already be booked. Stirling less than an hour on train to Edinburgh and Perth 1.5 hours. Hope that helps and have a fantastic trip!

@LadyGreySpillsTheTea yes we get a discount as do the people of Caithness using wick, but it can be about £50 less? Last time I flew Shetland to Orkney my discounted ticket was £140! Not been able to get a flight to Scotland for less than £200 since covid :(

There's a bus service from Scrabster to Thurso but check with Northlink how well it links up the boat and train. I'd definitely travel by train rather than bus, it's slow but the landscape is spectacular (as is the drive if you went by bus but all the twists and turns on a bus are not much fun). There's plenty of time to go boat to train station by taxi.

Inverness is lovely but I'd be happier being closer to the central belt for catching a flight from Edinburgh the next day. I'd agree with others though, by public transport the boat to Aberdeen and the train down from there is the easier journey by far. If I was you I'd do the journey in reverse, go north by train to Inverness, have a night there, then train to Thurso the next day and take the evening boat to Stromness. On the way back you can have a full day in Orkney then take the evening boat to Aberdeen (book a cabin) and then the morning train to Edinburgh.

From Thurso I’d the the train to Edinburgh. One change, 8 hours.

Do you not get to Thurso in time to do that?

Google maps should be accurate for buses and trains in the UK btw.

Ah I have reread and it doesn’t.

I’m shocked you don’t get more of a resident discount, @MrsAmaretto. The cheapest Loganair flight I could find on the day we want to travel was getting on for 300 euros. That’s fair enough for tourists who can choose, but a huge burden for locals on top of cost of living rises too.

@JaninaDuszejko It’s too late for us to reverse the route, sadly - we’ve already booked the train to Aberdeen, ferry to Kirkwall, our accommodation in Kirkwall knows we’re coming in from the late ferry, and then on to Stromness. We could still have a look to see if it would be worth going back to Kirkwall from Stromness and then on to the ferry and Aberdeen. But TBH we’ve never even seen the highlands before and were quite looking forward to a scenic journey back down to Edinburgh.

So this weekend we need to decide whether we’ll take the risk of catching the train from Thurso at 8.34 with a pre-booked taxi, or get the bus an hour later and put up with a vomit-inducing twisty journey. I’ll look up Perth and Sterling to see how they would work out for an overnight instead of Inverness. And then maybe in the end we’ll just give up and book the ferry instead! This is what happens when we plan a journey piecemeal without knowing how the rest of it will work out, totally our own fault. Thanks for all the help though!

Ahem, might be best to call it Stirling not Sterling…

Not too important, but the Air Discount Scheme for locals doesn't apply to the flight from Wick.

I know this is a zombie thread, but hoping for some replies. I want to go to Orkney in April and am torn between flying and getting the ferry. The drive to Thurso would mean an overnight stay both ways. The ferry from Aberdeen returns overnight and I hate ferries. I get seasick. What would most people advise? The trouble with flying is restrictions on luggage and having to hire a car. I've spent ages trying to decide on the best options.

Have a look at how often the various routes are cancelled or delayed by bad weather. It used to be fog would prevent aircraft from flying but the boat got through but I don't know if this still the same.

If you get seasick definitely do the short crossing Scrabster to Stromness rather than going out of Aberdeen. We chose boat because it's lower carbon than flying but I am not a fan of boats and get very seasick. However I survived Scrabster to Stromness in a gale. It's not very long at all.

I did Orkney last year, from central belt.

Drove up, stay in accommodation and was on the 9am Pentland catamaran ferry at Gills Bay (faster, more stable and cheaper than going on Northlink to Stromness, plus shorter sea journey/time for 2 mins more driving). I was on the island by mid-morning.
Coming home I came off the morning ferry (7:30 am I think) and drove it in one go, stopping for lunch at the black isle and then a leg stretch/loo at Dunkeld.

Having all my own stuff and my own car was much better than having a suitcase - the weather was so changeable, and I could take my bike for days out on the smaller islands.

I stayed 10 days to make the most of things.

In April you'd be very unlucky for the sea to be bad enough to cancel the Northlink Ferry (the short sea crossing is much less reliable and depending where yu are staying you could still have a long drive in Orkney). Fog is an issue in the summer for the planes but they have the landing gear at the airport now so it's much less of an issue than it was decades ago.

TBH if you are a bad sailor I'd fly. The Pentland Firth is very rough and you could still get a big swell at Easter, it's still winter in Orkney in comparison to further south where spring is definitely underway.

If you really want to take the car get a cabin on the boat from Aberdeen, then you'll have somewhere quiet and central to the boat to lie down and you'll have your own bathroom (although the public toilets on the boats are spotlessly clean). And although the trip is longer it's a lot less rough.