Our Inter-Island ferries operate between Orkney's mainland and thirteen beautiful island destinations.

We would like to advise customers that tomorrow’s cargo service to North Ronaldsay will sail as follows

Depart Kirkwall – 07:30

Arrive North Ronaldsay – 10:30

Depart North Ronaldsay – 11:00

Arrive Kirkwall – 13:40

We would like to advise passengers that we will be completing vessel switch overs on Friday 21st August in preparation for the Hoy Head bow thruster repairs.

There will be no cancellation of services during this switch over.

The MV Eynhallow will commence service on the Rousay Egilsay and Wyre route from the 0850 departure from Rousay to Wyre – there may be a slight delay as we complete the switch over.

The MV Shapinsay will commence service on the Shapinsay route from the 1130 departure from Kirkwall to Shapinsay

We would like to inform passengers that the 19:00 departure from Shapinsay to Kirkwall has been rescheduled to 20:00.

This is to facilitate travel for the Shapinsay darts competition.

As per our previous communication issued in April 2026, we would like to advise customers that the repair of the Hoy Head bow thrusters will now take place from Monday the 24th August in Stromness.

To complete the repairs, the Hoy Head will be out of service from Sunday 23rd at 15:00. Repairs are expected to take 3 weeks.

The MV Thorsvoe will operate the regular Houton Lyness and Flotta timetable starting from the 15:00 Lyness departure.

Due to the operational speed of the MV Thorsvoe, there may be some delays to timetabled sailings on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

We will be providing additional sailings on the MV Toplander between Houton and Lyness during this period to provide some additional capacity across all routes on the MV Thorsvoe.

The timetable can be viewed at http://www.orkneyferries.co.uk/.../summer-2026-toplander...

The MV Toplander will be available from Monday 24th August until the Hoy Head returns to service.

The service is available for car and small van bookings only and we can accommodate a maximum of 5 per sailing.

The number of passengers per car on this service is limited to 2 (driver plus one passenger), as the vessel certificate allows us to carry 12 persons including crew.

Passengers will be required to reverse their vehicle and will need to remain in their vehicles while onboard.

These sailings are not available for foot passenger, motorcycle or bicycle bookings – any customers with these requirements should book on the normal scheduled service.

This service must be booked in advance through our customer service teams at Kirkwall and Houton.

We are unable to accept ‘show and go’ passengers on this service.

We are pleased to be able to offer five late Saturday sailings over the summer period for Rousay, Egilsay and Wyre.

These are scheduled for 9^th May, 13^th June, 11^th July, 8^th August and 12^th September

Sailing times are as follows:

Depart Rousay 22:00

Depart Tingwall 22:35

Depart Rousay 23:10

Depart Wyre 23:20

Depart Egilsay 23:40

Arrive Rousay 23:55

Bookings can be made online, in person or by calling our offices.

These sailings are on request and must be booked and paid by 15:00 on the day of the departure or the service will not operate.

We would like to advise that the M.V. Toplander will be providing additional cargo sailings to Papa Westray on Wednesdays and North Ronaldsay on Thursdays throughout the summer timetable.

Sailings are on demand only and the timings for these services are dependent on weather and tidal conditions and will be published the day before departure.

Gather times for these sailings will be the same time as the normal gather time on a Tuesday between 08:00 and 10:00.

Vehicles must be booked by contacting our Kirkwall office on 01856 872044.

Please note that the MV Toplander will depart for refit on 29^th June, therefore there will be no additional sailings from the 1^st – 9^th July inclusive.

Due to a failure of one of the bow thrusters on board the Hoy Head identified during annual refit, the vessel will continue in service with some restricted operability in certain prevailing weather conditions with a single bow thruster in operation as it has done over the last few weeks.

This will unfortunately continue to have an impact on some sailings that may have been possible otherwise with both bow thrusters operable.

Considering the long lead time for replacement parts which are now on order and scheduled to be delivered to us in around 10-12 weeks, we considered that it was better to have the vessel return to service operating on the Hoy route throughout the busy spring and summer period albeit with the potential of some increased disruption due to the restrictions outlined above.

We plan to operate the vessel throughout the summer period on the scheduled service until such time that we have taken delivery of the required parts to complete the repair. When the repair to the Hoy Head is being completed and the vessel is out of service the MV Thorsvoe will return to cover as relief vessel on the route.

If there is any potential improvement to the timescales for the delivery of parts and the completion of the repair, we will share this information in due course. We apologise in advance to our customers for any inconvenience that will be caused because of this over the summer period and thank you for your patience in this matter.