Home

 

 2025 TOURS

Relaxed tailor-made wildlife and culture holidays for small groups of 5-6 only. 2025 Orkney Tour dates are now FULL. I’d like to thank all guests for your early bookings and wonderful support. 

 

STOP PRESS! 23 November 2023: Orkney-based wildlife tour operator, Orcadian Wildlife has WON the Business for Nature Award at RSPB Scotland’s prestigious 2023 Nature of Scotland Awards! In 2024 Orcadian Wildlife celebrates its 21st anniversary season of sharing Orkney’s amazing wildlife with its guests. Founded as a family business in 2004 it has been for many years the only wildlife tourism operator providing week-long tours resident in Orkney. From Hen harriers to Orcas to Scottish primroses, Orkney’s wildlife is unique!

Why tour Orkney with us? We pride ourselves on the attention given to you, our guests, in blending Orkney’s wildlife and culture. We live here, and know that you will witness memorable lifetime sightings in our beautiful archipelago with its 5,000 year-old monuments. The weather will be fresh, the days long and the sights and sounds of our Simmer Dim will remain with you always.

Highlights include Long-tailed duck, Scaup and Great-northern divers, close up and breath-taking in their summer plumage. Lapwings, Curlews, Snipe and Redshank will be calling and displaying. Hen harriers will be ‘sky-dancing’ or making food passes for your enjoyment. May brings the 1st flowering of the Scottish primrose, then later the cliff-tops will shock with their pinks and blues: Thrift and Spring squill. Other delights include large seabird and auk colonies on RSPB reserves; Arctic and Little terns, Arctic skuas and Bonxies; and perhaps even Orca or other cetaceans in Scapa Flow or the Pentland Firth. Orchids are in bloom in the moorlands and sea turf.

    Hen Harrier female, Grimness, South Ronaldsay.

Guests may expect to see around up to or around 100 species of birds, even though many common passerines are absent here.  Migrants are interesting and almost anything can (and does!) turn up. Recent rarities seen have included Varied Thrush and Siberian accentor. But please don’t be put off by rarities, we’re very happy with novice birdwatchers and pleased to pass on our skills.

A local saying is that Orkney soil bleeds history.  Orkney abounds with ancient Neolithic monuments like Skara Brae over 5,000 years old, and our many standing stones speak for themselves. We have had guests from all over the world who have enjoyed hugging stones like at the Ring of Brodgar or Stones of Stenness.  Our circular Pictish brochs are awesome in construction and siting. Our Viking past is very much alive in place names and accents. Indeed Orkney is often described as a little piece of Norway beyond Scotland.

Here’s a short video made by Jack Archer of Hopscotch Films for the Nature of Scotland Awards 2023, when Orcadian Wildlife won the Business for Nature Award!

 

A 7 night, 5 day guided tour of Orkney (with one ‘day free’ for personal wishes) in 2024 is £1,895 per person. This represents excellent value for money for a small group tour (maximum 5 persons), and is all-inclusive of the high quality 4* family-run hotel accommodation, meals, electric vehicle transport within Orkney, and most important of all, the 20+ years of experience of your guide, Steve Sankey.   All you have to do is to get here, and we will do the rest! 

 

Puffins always feature: our best-loved bird! Pic Sarah SankeyA typical group enjoying the Old Man of HoySkara Brae is one of Europe's finest stone-age villages and is just over 5,000 years old At the Gannetry on Noup Head, Westray

 


From above left: Orkney’s best-loved bird, the puffin, always feature in our itineraries; a typical group enjoying the Old Man of Hoy; Skara Brae and other 5,000 year-old Neolithic sites are a must; and finally gannets at Noup Head gannetry on Westray.

 

WH_Business_Concepts

Steve has completed a ‘World Host’ customer-service training course, in order to maintain Orcadian Wildlife’s highest standards of customer care. 

 

rdTopLaurel_LL_TMOur 2024 schedule (21st season of operation) is now AVAILABLE. Small group size is one of our strengths, typically in 2023 in Orkney to 5 persons only as we use an Electric Vehicle as part of our carbon emission reduction plan (for more details click here).  To view our schedule please click here. Please look at our testimonials (also to the right of the page) or check out our Trip Advisor page – we offer relaxed, tailor-made wildlife and activity holidays for small groups of people. Prices are all-inclusive of accommodation, transport within Orkney (or elsewhere), meals and guiding, and may be found on the ‘Wildlife Tours Availability‘ tab.

 

Steve on Hoy

What makes a holiday in Orkney with Orcadian Wildlife different?

We like to pride ourselves on no two days ever being the same. Orkney’s shifting skies and seas help, as does the weather – frequently all four seasons in one day. So it’s important to bring your waterproof jacket and trousers, and your boots.

Wildlife doesn’t stop for the weather and neither do we (unless with your agreement!). Wildlife, walking, photography and of course Orkney’s superb 5,000 year old Neolithic (new stone age) sites always feature in our itineraries. 

Orkney is one of the best places in Britain to get close to and enjoy seabirds, birds of prey and whales & dolphins (cetaceans).
 
  • We keep groups small (usually 5 guests only) on purpose in order to enable you to see more – you will see lots of memorable sights with us, whatever the time of year. We specialise in a blend of wildlife and culture.
  • We listen to you carefully about exactly what you’d like to see and where you would like to go – there are no sites on set days. Visiting islands is included and great fun!
  • We actually live here (unlike most tour groups who visit) and so we know more about daily life in Orkney.
  • Our holidays are all-inclusive, so that all you have to do is get here, and we do all the rest.
  • We’re proud of our approach to the environment: a very small group; an organic lifestyle; and a generator of renewable energy to help offset your carbon footprint.
  • We encourage repeat visits (Orkney gets a grip of you…) and returning guests benefit from large discounts.
  • Last – but most important – we really look after you! See the many testimonials on our website from our guests who have appreciated our relaxed style over the last 19 years.

There is always something special to see at any time of the year, from sky dancing hen harriers, to hunting orcas, and migrant birds.

Download 2023 Orkney Tourist Brochures 

Download our Orcadian Wildlife Tours Leaflet

Please visit the Orcadian Wildlife Facebook page for up-to-the-minute sightings and other current Orkney daily blog-type content: http://facebook.com/orcadianwildlife – this site also contains photo-albums of all international tours.

See some short videos of seabirds by clicking on this You Tube link:

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsEhYl5vuuuelwB0LP8JSpA

And you can access lots of useful general information about Orkney by clicking on the following link: Orkney.com

Since 2004 until the final dig season in 2024, an exciting archaeological dig has been taking place at the Ness of Brodgar in West Mainland, in the Heart of Neolithic Orkney. This site has been the subject of a TV documentary by Neil Oliver, and has contributed much to our knowledge of the Neolithic peoples and their lifestyle. If you wish to learn more, read this excellent piece done by Roff Smith for the National Geographic – for visual click here; for the feature article click here. For detailed information see the Ness of Brodgar website.

For a flavour of what Orkney has to offer the holidaymaker have a look at our Orkney Photo Album