Quick Navigation
- The four buses that do all the work
- Kirkwall to Skara Brae without a car
- Kirkwall to the Ring of Brodgar and the Stones of Stenness
- Kirkwall to Maeshowe without a car
- Kirkwall to the Italian Chapel without a car
- St Magnus Cathedral and the rest of Kirkwall
- If you are here on a cruise call
- One car-free day, planned properly
- The things that will catch you out
- Frequently asked questions
- How do I get from Kirkwall to Skara Brae without a car?
- Can you visit the Ring of Brodgar by bus?
- How do I get to Maeshowe without a car?
- Is there a bus from Kirkwall to the Italian Chapel?
- Can I see Skara Brae and the Ring of Brodgar in one day by bus?
- Do Orkney buses run on Sundays?
- Sources & further reading
Getting from Kirkwall to Skara Brae without a car is not the problem people think it is. There is a bus, it stops at the visitor centre door, and in summer it runs most of the day. The thing nobody tells you is that two different buses go to the same handful of famous stones, and one of them takes nineteen minutes to reach the Ring of Brodgar while the other takes fifty-one. Pick the wrong one and you lose half a morning to a scenic detour you did not ask for.
This guide is the route-by-route version: Kirkwall to each of the big sites, which service to take, how long it actually takes, and what you will have to walk at the far end. All the timings come from the Orkney Islands Council summer 2026 timetables rather than a journey planner's guess.
The four buses that do all the work
Orkney's Mainland has a small bus network and you only need to understand four parts of it. Everything leaves from the Kirkwall Travel Centre on Great Western Road, about a four-minute walk from the harbour.
| Service | Where it goes | Why you would take it |
|---|---|---|
| X1 | Stromness – Kirkwall – St Margaret's Hope, and in summer out to the Ring of Brodgar and Skara Brae | The workhorse. Runs roughly hourly through the day, including Sundays, and covers both the west and the south. |
| 8S | Kirkwall – Ring of Brodgar – Dounby – Skara Brae – Stromness | The direct one. Goes over the top of the Mainland instead of round by Stromness, which is why it is so much quicker to the stones. Monday to Saturday only. |
| T11 | A circular sightseeing loop from Kirkwall via St Margaret's Hope, Orphir, Stromness and the Ring of Brodgar | A guided-feeling tour for the price of a coffee. One departure a day in season. |
| Service 4 | Kirkwall Airport – Kirkwall | Getting in from the plane. About thirteen minutes, roughly every half hour. |
The detail that changes your day: the X1 runs west to Stromness first, then doubles back east to reach the Ring of Brodgar and Skara Brae. The 8S goes straight across the middle of the island. Same destination, very different clock.
Kirkwall to Skara Brae without a car
Both the 8S and the X1 stop at the Skara Brae visitor centre itself in summer, so there is no walk at the end and no taxi to arrange. The difference is the road they take to get there.
| Service | Leaves Kirkwall | Reaches Skara Brae | Journey |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8S (direct) | 08:32 | 09:24 | 52 minutes |
| X1 (via Stromness) | 08:46 | 09:50 | 64 minutes |
| X1 (via Stromness) | 09:56 | 11:00 | 64 minutes |
The 08:32 on the 8S is the one to aim for. Skara Brae opens at 9.30am between 1 April and 30 September, so a 09:24 arrival puts you at the gate six minutes before the doors open and well ahead of the coach parties. Historic Environment Scotland recommends booking online in advance, and it is worth checking whether a cruise ship is in that day, because the site gets genuinely crowded when one is.
Coming back, the X1 leaves Skara Brae at 10:03, 11:03, 12:03, 13:03, 14:03, 15:03 and 17:03 on weekdays, each taking about an hour to reach Kirkwall. That 17:03 is the useful one — it means you can stay until the site closes at 5.30pm in high summer and still get home. If you want the full detail on what to see once you are inside, our Skara Brae visitor guide covers the village house by house.
Kirkwall to the Ring of Brodgar and the Stones of Stenness
This is where the choice of bus matters most. The 8S leaves Kirkwall at 08:32 and is standing at the Ring of Brodgar by 08:51 — nineteen minutes. The X1 covers the same ground in fifty-one minutes because it visits Stromness on the way. Neither costs meaningfully more than the other.
Both services have a stop at the Ring of Brodgar itself. The circle is open ground, free, and there is no gate to be inside of, so the bus timetable is the only schedule you are working to.
The Standing Stones of Stenness are a separate monument about a mile south-east of Brodgar, and the walk between the two along the Ness of Brodgar isthmus is one of the better half-hours in Orkney — water on both sides, the Ness excavation site in between. If you would rather not walk it, the X1's Stenness stop puts you roughly ten minutes on foot from the Stenness stones.
The combination that works: out on the 8S at 08:32, off at Brodgar at 08:51, walk down to Stenness and back over the next couple of hours, then pick up the westbound X1 at Brodgar at 10:47 and be at Skara Brae by 11:00. Two world-heritage sites and a coastal walk before lunch, on two bus fares.
Kirkwall to Maeshowe without a car
Maeshowe is the one site on this list you cannot simply turn up at. Access is by guided tour only, every tour starts at the visitor centre at Stenness, and a small shuttle bus runs visitors the last few minutes to the cairn itself. You cannot walk in from the road.
Stagecoach's own advice is to take the X1 to the Stenness visitor centre and use the shuttle from there. The X1 does that leg in about twenty-three minutes from Kirkwall, which makes the arithmetic easy: tours run at 10am, noon, 2pm and 4pm from 1 April to 30 September, and at 10am, noon and 2pm from 1 October to 31 March, and you have to check in fifteen minutes before your slot.
Kirkwall to the Italian Chapel without a car
The Italian Chapel sits on Lamb Holm, across the first of the Churchill Barriers, and the southbound X1 towards St Margaret's Hope goes straight past it. The catch is that there is no formal bus stop — outside built-up areas Stagecoach's Orkney services run on a hail-and-ride basis, so you tell the driver where you are going when you get on and they will put you down at the chapel road end. From there it is a walk of a few hundred metres.
Reckon on roughly a quarter of an hour out of Kirkwall; the timetable has the southbound X1 at St Mary's fourteen minutes after leaving the Travel Centre, and the chapel is the next thing along the road. Carry on to the end of the line and St Margaret's Hope is thirty-two minutes from Kirkwall.
The chapel opens 9am to 5.30pm daily in June, July and August, and 10am to 1pm daily from November to March, with a small admission charge. The shoulder months sit between the two, so check before you make a special trip.
St Magnus Cathedral and the rest of Kirkwall
People search for how to get from Kirkwall to Kirkwall Cathedral without a car often enough that it deserves saying plainly: you walk. St Magnus Cathedral is about three hundred metres from the Travel Centre, four or five minutes on foot, and entry is free, with donations welcome. The tour of the upper levels and the bell tower is charged and has to be arranged in advance, so ask early if you want it. The Bishop's and Earl's Palaces are directly opposite, and the Orkney Museum is across the street from those.
If you are basing yourself in town for a few days rather than passing through, that walkability is the whole argument for staying central — the places to stay in Kirkwall put the cathedral, the museum and every bus departure inside a ten-minute radius.
If you are here on a cruise call
Most ships berth at Hatston Pier, four kilometres north-west of town along an industrial road with no footpath. Do not attempt to walk it. Orkney Islands Council runs a free shuttle into the Kirkwall Travel Centre, no ticket needed, and it takes about seven minutes — which drops you exactly where every bus in this guide departs from.
From there the independent options are the ones above, and the T11 deserves a mention of its own. It leaves the Travel Centre at 10am, loops south to St Margaret's Hope, west along the Orphir coast to Stromness, stops for half an hour at the Ring of Brodgar and returns via Dounby and Finstown by 13:40. It runs from 26 April to 20 September and on cruise days, and Stagecoach charge £2 a head for it. As a way to see the shape of the island on a short call, nothing else comes close on value. Our Kirkwall cruise stopover guide goes into the piers, the tenders and how much you can fit into a short call.
One car-free day, planned properly
If you only have a single full day and you want the three headline sites, this is the shape of it. It uses weekday summer timings, so check your own dates.
- 08:32 — 8S from the Kirkwall Travel Centre, Stance 3.
- 08:51 — off at the Ring of Brodgar. You will very likely have it to yourself at that hour.
- 09:00 to 10:40 — walk the isthmus down to the Standing Stones of Stenness and back, past the Ness of Brodgar excavation.
- 10:47 — westbound X1 from Brodgar.
- 11:00 — Skara Brae. Allow a couple of hours with the visitor centre and the walk down to the village.
- 15:03 or 17:03 — X1 back, reaching Kirkwall at 16:07 or 18:07.
Maeshowe does not fit into that day, because its tour slots collide with the middle of it. Give Maeshowe its own half-day with a booked tour and use the X1 both ways.
The things that will catch you out
- The historic-site stops are a summer thing. The Skara Brae and Ring of Brodgar calls belong to the enhanced summer timetable, which runs from 6 April to 30 October 2026. Outside those dates, check the winter timetable before you plan around them.
- The 8S does not run on Sundays. The X1 does, including the Skara Brae and Brodgar calls, but on a thinner pattern — the last Sunday departure from Skara Brae is earlier than the weekday one.
- Buses fill up. The council's own timetable carries the warning that services can be at capacity at peak times. On a cruise day with two ships in, that is not a theoretical risk.
- Hail-and-ride cuts both ways. Outside the towns you flag the bus down, which also means standing somewhere the driver can see you and stop safely.
- Timetables change. Everything here is read off the summer 2026 timetables. Check the live times on the Stagecoach app before you set out.
For the wider picture — ferries, inter-island flights, bikes, taxis and how the whole network fits together — see our guide to travelling around Orkney without a car.
Frequently asked questions
How do I get from Kirkwall to Skara Brae without a car?
Take the 8S bus, which leaves the Kirkwall Travel Centre at 08:32 and reaches the Skara Brae visitor centre at 09:24. The X1 also serves Skara Brae in summer but goes via Stromness, taking about 64 minutes. Both stop at the visitor centre itself.
Can you visit the Ring of Brodgar by bus?
Yes. Both the 8S and the summer X1 have a stop at the Ring of Brodgar. The 8S is much quicker from Kirkwall at about nineteen minutes, against roughly fifty-one on the X1, which detours via Stromness first.
How do I get to Maeshowe without a car?
Take the X1 to the Stenness visitor centre, about twenty-three minutes from Kirkwall, then use the site shuttle for the last few minutes to the cairn. Maeshowe is guided-tour only and tours should be booked online in advance.
Is there a bus from Kirkwall to the Italian Chapel?
Yes, the southbound X1 towards St Margaret's Hope passes the chapel. There is no marked stop, so tell the driver when you board and they will set you down at the chapel road end, a few hundred metres away. Allow about a quarter of an hour from Kirkwall.
Can I see Skara Brae and the Ring of Brodgar in one day by bus?
Comfortably. Take the 8S out to Brodgar first thing, spend the morning between the stone circles, then pick up the westbound X1 at Brodgar late morning for Skara Brae and return on an afternoon X1.
Do Orkney buses run on Sundays?
The X1 runs on Sundays in summer, including the Ring of Brodgar and Skara Brae stops, though on a reduced pattern with an earlier last bus. The 8S is Monday to Saturday only.
Sources & further reading
- Orkney Islands Council — Service X1 timetables
- Orkney Islands Council — Service 8S, Quoyloo and Skara Brae
- Stagecoach — Visit Orkney by bus, including the T11 tour
- Historic Environment Scotland — Skara Brae prices and opening times
- Historic Environment Scotland — Maeshowe Chambered Cairn
- Orkney.com — The Italian Chapel
Timings and opening hours checked against the summer 2026 timetables in August 2026. Bus times change seasonally — confirm on the day before you travel.
