Out of Hours Ferry

Shapinsay Development Trust fund a timetabled, foot-passenger only, service from Shapinsay to the Corn Slip (opposite Helgis Bar) at Kirkwall pier, daily. This service is subsidised through funds from Whirly, the island turbine.

Out of hours latest news: Office hours for bookings are now Monday to Friday 9am-4pm, Saturday and Sundays 9am-12pm. Bookings out-with these times will be processed the next day. If you call and there is no answer, please leave a message and the booking person will get back to you when they are available. Bookings can be requested half an hour either side of the scheduled sailing times, large bookings at other times may be considered.

Shapinsay Development Trust Purchased The Linnhe Venture on Wednesday the 11th of October. She has now been renamed the “Elwick Bay”. She needs to undergo some work to upgrade the cabin and make a few small changes before we can put her into service. In the mean time, we are working on ensure we have a crew that have all the required tickets. If you have up to date tickets, or would like to get involved and get tickets to be able to help run the service, please get in touch ASAP. Due to the weather conditions the work on the Elwick bay has been continually delayed, so we have no timeline for beginning running the service ourselves.

The Out of Hours boat service runs one sailing per day.

The timetable is as follows:

Monday-Thursday KWL-Shap at 9pm / Shap-KWL at 9.20pm.

Friday& Saturday KWL Shap at 11pm / SHAP-KWL at11.20pm. (With a minimum 2 weeks notice, this could be arranged to meet the Northlink ferry)

Sunday – SUMMER TIMETABLE – NO SERVICE

Any Additional sailings to the timetable will be charged at £100 per sailing regardless of number travelling. SDT will advertise any extra sailings.

Fares

Fares for the scheduled sailings are;
Adults – £8.50 / Age 12-Adult – £2 / Unders 12s –  FREE

**Bookings to meet the Northlink Ferry are only on Fridays and Saturdays if bookings are made at least 2 weeks in advance to allow others to know the timetabling before they book. Bookings with less than 2 weeks notice may not be considered if prior bookings are already on the calendar

View the bookings calendar here.

You can make a booking online by completing the form below.

Please make bookings between 9am and 4pm daily. Any messages sent out-with these hours will be processed as soon as possible. You can get in touch using the following contact methods or use the booking form below.

Email: shapinsaybookings@gmail.com (Emails are sporadic when they come through on the phone so text, call or whatsapp if you want a faster response)
Phone, voice mail, Whatsapp or text: 07901 575162

SDT staff wil be happy to assist with any queries  –  01856 711733 between 9am and 1pm Monday to Thursday.

Terms

Please note:

SDT have run an out of hours service since around 2011. We closely monitor usage and demand and try to tailor the service accordingly, while trying to keep the service sustainable. Due to the retiral of our stalwart service provider and an increase in fuel prices, we can no longer sustain runs twice per evening or early morning sailings. We have just purchased our own small boat to run the service ourselves, we hope this will give us a little more flexibility to be able to run extra sailings, while keeping long term costs to a minimum. We hope to be able to start running the service ourselves early in 2024.

Timetable

Monday

Time Departing Arriving
9:00 pm Kirkwall Shapinsay
9:20 pm Shapinsay Kirkwall

Tuesday

Time Departing Arriving
9:00 pm Kirkwall Shapinsay
9:20 pm Shapinsay Kirkwall

Wednesday

Time Departing Arriving
9:00 pm Kirkwall Shapinsay
9:20 pm Shapinsay Kirkwall

Thursday

Time Departing Arriving
9:00 pm Kirkwall Shapinsay
9:20 pm Shapinsay Kirkwall

Friday

Time Departing Arriving
11:00 pm Kirkwall Shapinsay
11:20 pm Shapinsay Kirkwall

Saturday

Time Departing Arriving
11:00 pm Kirkwall Shapinsay
11:20 pm Shapinsay Kirkwall
Note: If 4 or more people are want the late sailing made later, it can be for a charge of £12 per head

Book

Please complete the form below to request a booking reservation for the out of hours ferry.







    Select a date first and refer to the timetable above to select the correct departure time.




    Select all age ranges that apply.