Orkney Coaches run a fantastic service linking the four parts of the WHS with Stomness and Kirkwall. A day ticket cost 7 pounds, and I felt right at home on the bus (the driver was from Tasmania). I found the ancient dwellings at Skara Brae very intesting, but Maes Howe seemed a smaller version of the mound at Newgrange, Ireland.

Connecting from the Scottish rail system to Kirkwall was made very simple with a return ticket costing 28 pounds, which covered the journey fron Thurso to Kirkwall via John O'Groats and Burwick and back again to Wick, in itself an interesting journey.