Orkney Ferries keeps two timetables a year and swaps them on a Sunday night. The summer sheet for Westray expires on 27 September; from the 28th the island is on the winter grid, which gives most weekdays two round trips and leaves Sunday with a single evening run.
Winter timetable, effective 28 September 2026 to 1 May 2027, read on orkneyferries.co.uk on 22 September 2026. The summer sheet it replaces ran from 3 May to 27 September 2026. Orkney Ferries — Outer North Isles Ro-Ro Service, winter timetable (PDF) · 2026-09-22
The last week of September is when Orkney changes gear. The summer sheet for Westray, in force since 3 May, runs out on the 27th; from Monday 28 September the island is on the winter grid, which holds until 1 May 2027 and is broken in the middle by a refit period in January and February. Nothing about the boat changes — it is the same hour and twenty-five minutes from Kirkwall to Rapness — but the shape of the day does, and so does what you can do with it. Seasons like this decide more journeys than fares do across much of the Scottish network we cover.
Westray is one of the larger North Isles and this ro-ro is how it gets fed, fuelled and visited. Orkney Ferries has been the council's own company since 1987, working thirteen island destinations and more than twenty thousand sailings a year; this is one of the longer legs of that network and one of the better served, with two round trips on most winter weekdays where the smaller isles get one. Shetland keeps its islands in house the same way: the Yell–Unst crossing is council-operated too.
The winter pattern is easy to summarise and slightly awkward to use. On Monday and Saturday the boat leaves Kirkwall at 07:20 and 16:20 and comes off Rapness at 09:00 and 17:55. Tuesday swaps the second outward run for a 13:30. Wednesday and Thursday each carry a third pair until the end of October and lose it afterwards. Friday shifts everything twenty minutes earlier in the morning. And Sunday is barely a service at all: 17:00 out, 18:35 back.
Orkney prices an eighty-five-minute sea crossing the way a mainland council prices a bus. A car and two adults from Kirkwall to Rapness comes to £29.50 one way — £16.00 for the vehicle and £6.75 a head — and the return is simply twice the single on every line in the table, so there is nothing to gain by booking both legs together except the space itself.
The concession that catches people out works the other way round. Anyone up to 22 holding a Young Scot card or a National Entitlement Card travels free on Orkney Ferries; the £3.40 junior fare below is what you pay without one. Blue Badge holders pay the registered-disabled rates, and a National Entitlement Card with the 'Eye' endorsement is treated the same way.
| Adult, single | £ 6.75 |
| Adult, return | £ 13.50 |
| Junior, single | £ 3.40 |
| Junior, return | £ 6.80 |
| Senior citizen 65 and over, single | £ 5.10 |
| Registered disabled or blind, single | £ 5.10 |
| Child under 5 | Free |
| Car up to 5.5 m | £ 16 |
| Van up to 5.5 m | £ 16 |
| Car carrying a registered disabled passenger | £ 12 |
| Motorcycle | £ 9.20 |
| Bicycle or tricycle | Free |
| Motorhome up to 5.5 m | £ 16 |
| Motorhome 5.51–8 m | £ 39.50 |
| Motorhome 8.01–10 m | £ 52.65 |
| Motorhome 10–15 m | £ 79 |
| Any other vehicle over 5.5 m, base rate | £ 54 |
| Each further 0.5 m over 5.5 m, or part of it | £ 13.85 |
| Adult | £ 329.25 |
| Junior | £ 163.70 |
| Car up to 5.5 m | £ 777.65 |
Fares from 1 April 2026, published for the year to 31 March 2027 Orkney Ferries — North Isles vehicle and passenger fares (PDF) · 2026-09-22
Rapness sits 29.3 kilometres north of Kirkwall pier in a straight line — under sixteen nautical miles — but the boat takes an hour and twenty-five minutes over it, because the track threads out past the eastern isles rather than running direct. The pier is at the southern tip of Westray for the same reason: it is the closest solid ground to Kirkwall, not the closest ground to anywhere on the island. Pierowall, where the people are, is at the far north end.
The North Isles boats go from the pier at the bottom of Kirkwall, with the ferry office on Shore Street a few steps from the ramp — the one place on the route where cash works for a reservation. Telephone enquiries run 07:00 to 17:00 on weekdays and the counter opens at 09:00, closing at noon at weekends; on a Wednesday both go quiet from 14:00 to 15:00 for the company's weekly meeting.
Orkney Ferries asks you not to arrive more than an hour before your sailing, and there is no left luggage anywhere on the network.
Rapness is a pier at the southern tip of Westray with very little around it, and that is what to plan for: the island's village, shop, school and public toilets are at Pierowall, up at the other end. The timetable itself supplies the answer — a private minibus between Rapness and Pierowall, on request — and islanders meet the boat by car.
The same sheet lists a scheduled feeder for foot passengers and light cargo between Pierowall and Papa Westray, timed against these sailings, so the hop to the smaller island starts at the north end of Westray rather than at the berth you land on.
A car has to be on the pier ready to load 20 minutes ahead of the sailing; on foot the margin is 10. Some services in this fleet ask you to reverse onto the deck, so leave the confident-driver energy at the top of the ramp.
A vehicle space has to be reserved an hour or more ahead of the Kirkwall departure, online or by phone in office hours. You can travel without one and pay on board, but once the deck is full the answer is no — and a space you do not release an hour beforehand is charged in full.
Orkney Ferries carries juniors up to the age of 22 free of charge if they hold a Young Scot card or a National Entitlement Card. Islanders aged 65 and over, or with a disability, can ask the council's transport team on 01856 873636 for a concessionary card, good for twelve return journeys a year.
Landing at the pier does not put you in the village. A private minibus runs between Rapness and Pierowall on request, and the Papa Westray foot ferry leaves from Pierowall, not from the ro-ro berth — both are printed on the same timetable sheet as the sailings themselves.
The Outer North Isles are worked by the MV Earl Sigurd and MV Earl Thorfinn, both McTay-built in 1989 at 771 gross tons and 45 metres, and the larger MV Varagen of 1988 — 928 tons, 50 metres and three knots quicker. Orkney Ferries does not publish which of the three is on Westray on a given day.
Online and telephone reservations must be paid by card, concession card or multi-journey card. Cash works at the ferry offices and on board, which matters if you are travelling without a booking.
That Sunday sailing is worth looking at closely, because it explains the rhythm of the whole route. The boat reaches Rapness at 18:25 and leaves again at 18:35 — ten minutes on the island. It is not designed to take you to Westray; it is designed to take Westray people home at the end of the weekend, and to reposition the ship for Monday's 07:20. Arrive on a Sunday and you are staying until at least Monday morning.
In the other direction the timetable is a commuter's document. Leave Rapness at 09:00, land in Kirkwall at 10:25, and you have until 16:20 before the boat that brings you back — six hours for the dentist, the supermarket and the bank, which is exactly the length of an island errand day. From 30 October the Thursday afternoon return at 14:35 becomes the last off the island, and the Wednesday extras disappear, so the winter proper is a two-boat day on five days out of seven.
Rapness, at the southern tip of the island. The village — shop, school, public toilets — is at Pierowall on the north coast, and the timetable offers a private minibus between the two on request. If someone has told you to meet them 'at the ferry', check which end of Westray they mean.
No. Sunday has one crossing each way and both are in the evening: 17:00 from Kirkwall arriving 18:25, then 18:35 off Rapness arriving 20:00. The ten-minute turnaround means a Sunday visit to Westray is not a visit at all, and a Sunday arrival commits you to staying the night.
Four sailings. Wednesday loses the 10:35 from Kirkwall and the 12:10 from Rapness; Thursday loses the 16:20 and the 17:55. The winter sheet marks them as operating only until 29 October, and from 2 November both days run the standard two round trips — except that Thursday's last boat off Westray is then 14:35.
On most days, yes. The 07:20 lands you at 08:45 and the 17:55 gets you back at 19:20, which is a nine-hour day on the island — Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Thursday after 30 October is shorter, ending with the 14:35, and Sunday is impossible.
No. Orkney Ferries prices every return as exactly twice the single, so it is £13.50 for an adult and £32.00 for a car up to 5.5 metres. Two adults in a car pay £29.50 one way and £59.00 there and back, however you buy it. A motorcycle is £9.20 and a bicycle crosses free.
No. Orkney Ferries carries juniors up to the age of 22 free if they hold a Young Scot card or a National Entitlement Card. Without one, the junior fare is £3.40 single and £6.80 return — still half the adult rate.
A refit timetable takes over from 3 January to 6 March 2027. Weekdays keep roughly the same shape, Friday goes back to the normal 07:20 and 09:00, Saturday drops to a single evening round trip at 16:20 and 17:55, and Sunday's return moves to 18:00. The refit sheet warns in its own footnote that the work may run past 13 March.
That is the plan, and Westray is first in the queue. Orkney Islands Council has designed three monohulls of up to 60 metres for Westray, Stronsay, Sanday and Eday — 190 seats instead of 142, 34 cars or 10 lorries instead of 26 cars or 2 — but its own page still describes the construction tender as something yet to be issued, and says any contract depends on Scottish Government funding. Shetland got there first with a smaller boat: Fair Isle's replacement is already being built at Whitby.