Kirkwall, Scotland
Sometimes, it is good to visit a museum to get a sense of a town or local area. Since we were in Kirkwall and had a little extra time, we decided to visit the Orkney Museum.
The museum is easy to find, located across the street from St. Magness Cathedral. I learned about the museum from Rick Steves’s Scotland Guidebook, and he listed it as a two-triangle, try-hard-to-see destination. On my European travels, I’ve learned to trust Uncle Rick, so we visited after the church and after Wayne, and I found a new parking spot for the van.
The Orkney Museum is free and is open Monday through Saturday 10:30 AM to 12:30 PM and 1:30 PM to 5:00 PM. When you enter, the exhibits are on multiple floors and it is easy to get lost trying to work your way through the Tankerness House, which has existed since early in the 16th century. Several of the exhibits are very hands-on and several are quite historic including artifacts found in bogs and other parts of the islands. Rick Steves describes the museum as “covering virtually every dimension of history and life on the island.”
Considering the cost and the location to downtown Kirkwall, a stop in the Orkney Museum can be worthwhile. If you are only in the Orkney Islands for a day, you might want to budget that time at one of the other sites, but that depends on how long your cruise ship is in town or how quickly you need to make back to the ferry terminal. I could have spent a little more time at the museum, but it was a decent quick stop in Kirkwall.