Where to Stay in Orkney: Hotels, B&Bs and Self-Catering

Where you sleep shapes an Orkney trip more than the itinerary does. Base yourself in Kirkwall and you are walking distance from St Magnus Cathedral, the museums and most of the island's restaurants; base yourself in Stromness and you wake up beside the Scrabster ferry and twenty minutes from the Neolithic sites; take a cottage on the West Mainland and you trade the shops for a dark sky and a view. These guides work through the real options — hotels, guest houses, bed and breakfasts, self-catering cottages, glamping pods and dog-friendly lets — and name properties you can go and look at rather than talking in generalities.