Ferry guide to Orkney Mainland

I have always wanted to visit Orkney as my mother was stationed there in the WAAF during the war. So this year the dog and I took off for 6 weeks with the aim to eventually fulfill my ambition. I had looked extensively online about taking a caravan on the ferry, but came up with very little information, so I thought this may come in handy for anyone else wishing to go.

My journey was May 2012, outbound I went from Scrabster to Stromness, at this time of year the ferries are not busy and I could have just turned up and gone. In fact I booked and payment was taken over the phone. The ferry was a roll on roll off, the terminal was easy to find and boarding caused no problems. I had my dog with me and he had to stay in the car. He could have come out but would not have been allowed in any inside area of the ship, as you had to go through the inside to get to the outside deck I am not sure how that would have worked. The ship is positively luxurious inside with lounges, a bar and a restaurant. Journey time is one and a half hours and you go right past the Old Man of Hoy. The route out of Stromness is very easy and well signposted. The time to Kirkwall is about 35 mins. The fare for me, the caravan and car (which together was 10mtrs) was £99 which included an over 60 discount.

On the way back I decided I would use the other route from St Margaret Hope to Gills Bay, this is by Catamaran, goes through Scapa Flow and only takes an hour. I phoned and booked, again not busy, and was told to pay when I got there. The jourey from Kirkwall to St Margarets involves crossing 5 Churchill Barriers. I left plenty of time for the journey as it was blowing force 7- 8  W to E and I was worried about crossing the barriers. I took it quite slowly, as it was so windy and there was the occassional wave breaking over the road, it took about an hour to do the journey from Kirkwall. Luckily I was the first to arrive as I then discovered that it is not roll on roll off. I had to drive on, drive in a circle, they then unhitched the caravan and pushed it to the back of the ship and I had to reverse on to it, they then re-hitched it, Luckily I checked it as they hadn't raised the jockey wheel right up. The cars go in the centre of the ship, which is open, the accommodation is in the two hulls. These consist of  aircraft seats in a 4 and 3 configuration, one side had tables with a small food outlet, the other just seats and and no food allowed. It was an interesting journey due to the cross wind, I heard someone ask one of the crew if it was rough, he answered "well it depends what you call rough" - it was. Driving off was a bit dodgy due to the ramp going up and down with the swell, you had to get the timing right. Cost for this was £81.

One tip, none of the petrol stations in Thurso display any prices, and I thought I had better fill up before I went, I paid £1.56 a litre for diesel, in Kirkwall it was £1.47.