About Finstown
A guide to staying in Finstown
Finstown sits on the shore of the Bay of Firth, on the A965 roughly midway between Kirkwall and Stromness. That position is the whole argument for staying here: you are within easy reach of both towns and of the West Mainland's Neolithic sites without being committed to either end of the island.
Maeshowe and the Stones of Stenness are a short drive west. Both are part of the Heart of Neolithic Orkney UNESCO World Heritage Site, along with the Ring of Brodgar and Skara Brae — so a base at Finstown puts the whole of that cluster within a comfortable morning's drive, with Kirkwall the same distance back the other way.
The village is younger than its Norse-named neighbours and its name has a recorded origin. It was formerly Toon o' Firth; the present name traces to David Phin, an Irishman who came to the area in 1811 and in 1820 opened an ale-house called the Toddy Hole. Phin left for Aberdeen four years later, but his name stayed with the settlement that grew up around the inn. The village sits at the junction of the A965 and the A966, and had a population of about 510 at the 2022 census, up from 440 in 2011.
The ground around Finstown has been occupied far longer than the village. Prehistoric cists have been found a little west of the primary school. The Rennibister Earth House, an Iron Age souterrain in a farmyard near the south-eastern shore of the Bay o' Firth, was discovered in 1926 when a threshing machine collapsed its roof; the remains of six adults and twelve children were found inside. Half a mile south-east of the village centre is the Cuween Hill chambered cairn, which held at least eight human burials and the skulls of twenty-four dogs.
The Bay of Firth itself is shallow and tidal, fringed with mudflats that draw wading birds at low water, and the village sits close enough that the bay is part of the everyday view rather than something you drive out to see. It is a quieter, more rural setting than either town, without a harbour, high street or ferry terminal of its own — which is the trade-off for sitting at the island's crossroads.
Accommodation is where the trade-off shows. Finstown is a village, and our listings here are the smallest of the four areas we cover — a handful of holiday homes and apartments, a couple of lodges and a guest house, rather than the range you get in Kirkwall or Stromness. What it offers instead is position: somewhere central to come back to each evening, with both towns and the Neolithic sites inside a short drive. If you want choice, look at Kirkwall; if you want to be in the middle of the Mainland, look here first and book early, because there is not much of it.