Getting on and off Orkney

Currently there are three year round ferry routes to Orkney, all with Roll on Roll off car ferries. Two routes are operated by a company called Northlink Ferries, www.northlinkferries.co.uk, which is at the minute operated by the Serco Group plc, on behalf of the Scottish Government. These are Scrabster to Stromness in Orkney and Aberdeen to Hatston, just outside Kirkwall in Orkney.  The ferry shown above is the 'Pentalina' operated by Pentland Ferries, www.pentlandferries.co.uk, which runs from Gill's Bay to St Margaret's Hope in Orkney. In summer there is a fourth passenger only service from John o Groats to Burwick in Orkney www.jogferry.co.uk. This has it's own express coach service to/from Inverness. in 2018 a new pricing system called Road Equivalent Tariff (RET) is supposed to be introduced by the Scottish Government, to subsidise ferry fares, to and from Orkney.