Public buses-Stornoway & Kirkwall, Scotland

Has anybody used the public buses at either Stornoway or Kirkwall to visit the sights? It appears you can get to the standing stones and other tourist points via the bus, and I wondered if anybody has done so.

I did email the transit offices on the islands, but the real experience of others is often the best advice.

Has anybody used the public buses at either Stornoway or Kirkwall to visit the sights? It appears you can get to the standing stones and other tourist points via the bus, and I wondered if anybody has done so.

 

I did email the transit offices on the islands, but the real experience of others is often the best advice.

Last year while in Stornoway I took the W2 bus from the bus terminus just across from the terminal to Port of Ness for £5.50 return. Beautiful scenery and worth the trip.

We were in Kirkwall in 2012. I would strongly encourage you to book a tour. It is one of the most fascinating place we've been to and we've been to a lot of places. Trying to take a public bus to the sights would be a nightmare. Kirkwall is small and easily over run with cruise ship passengers all trying to get to the sights. You might never be able to get on a bus let along get back on at another stop. Much better to have someone take you around so you get to see it all.

We used Explore Orkney: http://www.exploreorkney.com/ and they were excellent. We did the "Megaliths & Mysteries" tour but their new tour for cruise passengers is about the same.

Here's a link to our photos for this cruise: https://plus.google.com/photos/116687800070615072409/albums/5748756046090928625?banner=pwa&authkey=CNyG_4OT786O8wE Click on the line that says "go to web albums" for labled photos.

<<<Karen>>>

Houtbay, thanks for the encouragement. I heard back from the bus office, and the manager even suggested a route as well as sending me timetables. Since our ship doesn't carry that many people, and we have priority tendering, I figure we are easily able to get the first bus out of the town centre.

I realize that a guide can provide some good background, but I also found small guides to the Scottish isles on the internet that will be easy to pack and give us good background for a day of doing our own thing. At this point, our ship is the only one on the schedule, and it is a smaller one (HAL Prinsendam).

I was hoping to find out how the local buses worked and any other hints you might suggest. We will be traveling to Stornoway in early June 2016 on a smaller (1500 passenger) ship. While our usual preference is a self-guided walking tour, I was looking at the buses as an option if the weather is awful or simply to take advantage of a 12 hour stop.

I am interested in information too - to see the archaeological sites not many miles from Stornoway. Alas, my sisters are reluctant to drive since it would be on the "wrong" side!

We don't normally take private tours, but we did in Orkney. We booked with Wild about Orkney and were not disappointed. Our guide was extremely informative and knowledgeable. My OH is very interested in WWII history, so he saw quite a bit about that and a visit to the communications museum.

We were there last year at the beginning of August and had previously visited Ireland, Iceland and the Faroe Islands before arriving at Kirkwell. It was by far the worst weather. Extremely wet, windy and cold. Fortunately we were dressed appropriately and had waterproof trousers too. However, we still got fairly wet.

I certainly wouldn't want to be standing around waiting for buses and getting on public transport in that weather, I would much prefer the comfort of a mini bus or coach.