Day 1: Arrive Aberdeen — Granite City
Arrive in Aberdeen, Scotland’s ‘Granite City.’ Afternoon exploration of Old Aberdeen, including the 15th-century King’s College Chapel and the cobbled streets of the university quarter. Evening briefing over dinner at a seafood restaurant overlooking the harbor. Overnight Aberdeen.
Day 2: Overnight Ferry to Shetland
Morning at leisure in Aberdeen—explore the Maritime Museum or the newly reimagined Aberdeen Art Gallery. Late afternoon boarding the NorthLink overnight ferry from Aberdeen to Lerwick. Settle into your comfortable cabin. As the ship sails past the Aberdeenshire coast, keep watch for dolphins and perhaps minke whales. Overnight onboard ferry.
Day 3: Arrive Lerwick — Shetland’s Capital
Early morning arrival in Lerwick as the ferry glides into Bressay Sound. Settle into your hotel and enjoy a full Shetland breakfast. Morning walking tour of Lerwick, visiting the Lodberries (18th-century merchants’ houses built over the water), Fort Charlotte, and the superb Shetland Museum. Afternoon visit to Clickimin Broch, a remarkably preserved Iron Age tower on the shores of a loch within Lerwick. Evening at leisure. Overnight Lerwick.
Day 4: Southern Shetland — Jarlshof & St Ninian’s Isle
Full-day exploration of Shetland’s southern mainland. Morning at Jarlshof—4,000 years of settlement in one remarkable site. Walk through Bronze Age oval houses, Iron Age wheelhouses, and Viking longhouses where Norse settlers lived for generations. Continue to Sumburgh Head for the puffin colonies. Afternoon at St Ninian’s Isle, connected to mainland Shetland by a tombolo (sand bar) considered one of Europe’s finest. In 1958, a schoolboy discovered a hoard of Pictish silver here buried around 800 AD. Overnight Lerwick.
Day 5: Unst — Britain’s Northern Edge
A day journey to the top of Britain. Two ferry crossings take you to Unst, the northernmost inhabited island in the United Kingdom. Visit the Unst Boat Haven, a collection of beautifully restored Shetland boats. Hike the dramatic serpentine cliffs of the Keen of Hamar National Nature Reserve, home to the endemic Edmondston’s chickweed found nowhere else on Earth. Stand at Hermaness National Nature Reserve, where 100,000 seabirds nest on sheer 170m cliffs and the island of Muckle Flugga—Britain’s northernmost point—rises from the Atlantic with its Stevenson lighthouse. Return to Lerwick. Overnight Lerwick.
Day 6: Eshaness Cliffs & Scalloway
Morning drive to the west coast for Shetland’s most dramatic coastal scenery at Eshaness. The volcanic cliffs here have been sculpted by Atlantic storms into a series of arches, stacks, and blowholes—the lighthouse at Eshaness stands sentinel over it all. Walk the cliff path for views of the Drongs sea stacks. Afternoon in Scalloway, Shetland’s former capital, visiting Scalloway Castle (built 1600 by the tyrannical Earl Patrick Stewart) and the Scalloway Museum, which tells the remarkable story of the ‘Shetland Bus’—the WWII operation that smuggled agents and supplies between Shetland and Nazi-occupied Norway. Overnight Lerwick.
Day 7: Fly to Orkney — Kirkwall & St Magnus Cathedral
Morning flight from Sumburgh to Kirkwall, Orkney’s capital. Afternoon exploration of Kirkwall’s two great medieval monuments: St Magnus Cathedral, founded in 1137 by the Norse Earl Rognvald and built from striking red and yellow sandstone, and the adjacent Earl’s Palace, a 17th-century Renaissance residence. Wander Kirkwall’s narrow streets and visit the Orkney Museum in a 16th-century townhouse. Evening dinner featuring Orkney beef and seafood. Overnight Kirkwall.
Day 8: Heart of Neolithic Orkney
The UNESCO World Heritage day. Skara Brae—walk through the 5,000-year-old village preserved in sand. The Ring of Brodgar—stand among the third-largest stone circle in the British Isles. The Standing Stones of Stenness—four massive megaliths, all that remains of a circle dating to 3,100 BC, making it one of the earliest henge monuments in Britain. Maeshowe—enter the finest chambered cairn in northwest Europe, aligned so the setting midwinter sun illuminates the interior. This concentration of Neolithic monuments is unmatched anywhere in the UK. Overnight Kirkwall.
Day 9: West Mainland — Yesnaby, Skara Brae (revisited) & Birsay
Morning at Yesnaby on Orkney’s west coast, where the 370-million-year-old Old Red Sandstone cliffs hold some of Britain’s most spectacular coastal geology—sea stacks, blowholes, and the fossilized remains of ancient fish. Afternoon at the Brough of Birsay, a tidal island accessible by causeway at low tide, where a Norse settlement and 12th-century church sit atop an earlier Pictish monastery. The view across to Marwick Head and its Kitchener Memorial is breathtaking on a clear day. Overnight Kirkwall.
Day 10: South Isles — Churchill Barriers, Italian Chapel & Scapa Flow
A day exploring Orkney’s southern islands via the Churchill Barriers. Visit the Italian Chapel—an extraordinary testament to human creativity built by Italian POWs. Continue to the island of Lamb Holm, then Burray, linking to South Ronaldsay. At the Tomb of the Eagles, a 5,000-year-old chambered tomb discovered by a local farmer, you can actually enter the tomb chamber. Scapa Flow, one of the world’s great natural harbors, was the scene of the scuttling of the German High Seas Fleet in 1919—the wrecks are still visible by snorkel or dive. Farewell dinner in Kirkwall. Overnight Kirkwall.
Day 11: Depart Kirkwall
Morning at leisure for last-minute Orkney crafts—perhaps Orkney cheese or Highland Park single malt from Scotland’s northernmost whisky distillery. Flight from Kirkwall to Edinburgh, Glasgow, or Aberdeen for onward connections.
