UKC

So looking at and planning a trip to Hoy next week and looking at the ferry from mainland to orkney and it's coming in at £220 for a car with 3 people return.

From articles and trip reports etc I have read about £60 return.


We are looking at Scrabster to stromness on friday morning.


Seems crazy expensive.

In reply to kermit_uk:

Swimming is free

In reply to Cheese Monkey:

So would walking to Scrabster but I'm not going to do that either.

In reply to kermit_uk:

Can't help with better ferry options, but do you actually need the car? The Hoy ferry goes from Stromness, and if you want to do a bit of light sightseeing while you're on Orkney mainland there are pretty good buses to most of the obvious sights.

In reply to kermit_uk:

Not going at all is also free

In reply to kermit_uk:

I don't think you're missing anything, except that you possibly don't need to take your car.

You could cycle, or make use of the taxis:

http://www.hoyorkney.com/travel/travel-to-and-on-hoy/

If you want the car for driving around Mainland/South Ronaldsay, sightseeing, it's worth taking it. If you're just going to go to Hoy and climb, it might not be.

In reply to kermit_uk:

Nope it's about £55 each way for a car plus £18 each way per passenger. Travel on foot and it'll be £36 return each.

In reply to kermit_uk:

It will be much cheaper to travel as three foot passengers and then arrange a taxi on Hoy... We stayed in a bothy (old crofter's cottage) in Rackwick Bay. We got a taxi (a post office minibus, if I remember correctly) from Moaness to Rackwick and then bummed a lift out on a coach full of late middle aged Americuns (who later had their pictures taken with us on the ferry back to Scrabster.).

This might be of use: http://www.hoyorkney.com/attractions/hubs/moaness/

In reply to kermit_uk:

There's no point going to Hoy without a car.....

In reply to kermit_uk:

Get the ferry from Aberdeen and take a bike

In reply to kermit_uk:

I went on the bike, and was lucky with the weather.

We stayed in the Hostel up the hill from the ferry. There is a Bothy, a bit iffy.

In reply to kermit_uk:

I'm off there next week too and have asked a few friends the very same question.

That said, I would say opinion is divided, and it all seems to come down to cost vs. convenience. The cheapest option is to go as a foot passenger all the way, then get a taxi to Rackwick Bay (which is apparently pretty cheap, circa £10-15). The most expensive is to get your vehicle out there, be that Orkney Mainland or Hoy itself, but obviously this leaves you with the luxury of taking everything you want/need.

Not sure what we're going to do yet, but either way we'll hopefully see you out there.

In reply to Rob Greenwood - UKClimbing:

I seem to remember knocking on the door of someone's house near Rackwick bay to book the taxi back. It wasn't a problem, very friendly.

In reply to kermit_uk:

If you're taking the car over, the Gills Bay to St Margaret's Hope ferry is cheaper. Northlink is expensive! Obviously this leaves you with a bit of a drive to Stromness on the other side, but if you have the car with you it isn't a problem.

My main issue with the Hoy ferry is that it seems to be timetabled to leave Stromness about 20 minutes before the Scrabster boat gets in if I remember correctly.

In reply to kermit_uk:

Agree with foot passenger options - was a few years ago but we got 6am ferry from Scrabster then a little ferry from Stromness to Moaness. Then got taxi to Rackwick and climbed Old man that afternoon as weather was great and stopped night in the bothy on Rackwick Bay - hjghly recomended. We walked out back to Moaness (path through valley rather than road - but you could arrange taxi again). Cant remember all costs but was loads cheaper than taking a car.

In reply to kermit_uk:

Go on foot. We got the first ferry from Scrabster, found a wee soapdish ferry to take us to Hoy, and phoned ahead for the cab to pick us up. We agreed with the ferryman that he would come and pick us up later if we called. The cab picked us up and we ran over the moor from Rackwick to the Old Man, climbed it and ran back. We then called the ferry from Rackwick, cadged a cup of tea from the cabbie and went to catch the ferry. We had an interesting tour of the Scapa Flow wrecks on the ferry and the ferryman called his wife on the radio to arrange a B&B for us. She met us on the quayside to take us to the B&B and invited us to a ceilidh that evening. The rest is a bit of a blur.

In reply to kermit_uk:

You've probably got the message by now....

When we did OMH we used about 6 methods of transport - plane, taxi, bus, boat, bicycle and walk - but own car wasn't one of them and it didn't cause any problems.

In reply to kermit_uk:

I think there is a fair bit of confusing regarding ferries here.

To get from mainland Scotland to Orkney with a car you can either use Northlink from Scrabster to Stromness which will cost you £36 per adult return and £110 per car return. It is slightly cheaper to use Pentland Ferries, Gills Bay to St Margarets Hope - £32 per adult return and £76 per car return.

The car ferry from Houton (mainland Orkney) to Lyness (Hoy) is £27.20 return for a vehicle and £8.50 per adult return. Foot passenger only ferry from Stromness to Moaness (Hoy) costs £8.50 return.

Should you be planning to take a car from Houton to Lyness, please please book well in advance - it's booking up very quickly. And next week there is a large event on Hoy, the Commemoration of the Battle of Jutland, and the island will be mostly shut down on the 31 May with most of the roads closed - making it difficult to get around.

Good luck.

In reply to kermit_uk:

Thanks for all the thoughts and advice. Done a bunch more time and connection crunching and my inbuilt hatred of any form of public transport we're going to drive split between 3 of us it's only about £20 each extra and then we can carry all the gear food and booze in the world.

Plus if things go pear shaped weather wise we have transport.

Just hope the weather holds out now and good luck Rob might see you there somewhere!

In reply to kermit_uk:

Also, if you wanted to go elsewhere on Mainland Orkney you'd probably have to get a taxi. Easily done, but when I was last there it cost about £13 one way from Stromness to Yesnaby, so going by car doesn't work out much more really.