Visit Info

Orkney Fossil & Heritage Centre
Burray, Orkney, KW17 2SY

Tel: 01856 731255 / info@orkneyfossilcentre.co.uk

We will be closing at 5pm on Sunday 1st October 2023 until April 2024. Thank you to everyone who came to visit us this year. We look forward to greeting you again in 2024.

Admission Charges

Adults – £6.00
Concessions and children under 16 – £4.00
Children under 5 – Free
Family (family of 4) – £16.50
Discounted admission available for additional family members – please ask for price

How to get here

By Bus from Kirkwall
Some folk drive, some cycle and some take the bus. The Bus to catch is the X1 heading for St Margaret’s Hope, The Fossil Centre is a request stop and is about 25 minutes from Kirkwall Bus Station adjacent to the Travel Centre. The X1 route takes you over the Churchill Barriers and there is a stop at The Italian Chapel on Lamb Holm, just a couple of miles from The Orkney Fossil and Heritage Centre. In the summer the buses run every half hour. (please check with Stagecoach).

From Kirkwall:
A961 towards St Margaret’s Hope. The Fossil & Heritage Centre is on the left half a mile after crossing the third Churchill Barrier.

From South Ronaldsay:
A961 towards Kirkwall. After Burray Village, pass Echna Loch on your right with Scapa Flow on your left. The Fossil & Heritage Centre is on the hill on the right.

Information for disabled visitors

There is wheelchair access to the building via the Heritage Tearoom and an accessible toilet beside the main entrance. The downstairs galleries are mostly accessible, but there are steps down into the Glow Room, which displays fluorescent rocks.  The main local heritage galleries are upstairs and there is no stair lift.   Most of the displays are static, many items are in display cases and some can be touched. There is one soundscape unit and a screen with rotating black and white images, but no other audiovisual presentations.

The outbuildings and garden courtyard with displays of tools and other heritage items are accessible via a narrow stone path with steps. Look out for the low doorways. The Gift Shop and Heritage Tearoom areas are fully accessible and a table can be reserved in the Tearoom if you wish by phoning in advance.