The Norse legacy expedition multi day tour

Suitable for

• Visitors starting in Orkney or Shetland
• Travellers looking for a multi-day private tour of Scotland’s northern isles
• Clients interested in Norse history, archaeology, and island culture
• Guests comfortable with adaptive itineraries shaped around weather, ferries, and daylight

Private guiding is personally led throughout Orkney and Shetland, with pickup provided during guided days.

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 Why You’ll Want This Journey

This private multi-day Orkney and Shetland tour is for people who want to understand how the North Atlantic world actually worked.

Orkney and Shetland are often treated as separate destinations. Historically, they were inseparable. The Norse did not see isolated islands. They saw a connected network where power, belief, trade, and identity moved across sea routes layered over much older Neolithic, Bronze Age, and Iron Age worlds.

The Norse Legacy Expedition is designed to let you experience that continuity properly.

Neolithic monuments, Bronze Age landscapes, Iron Age strongholds, and Norse centres are not presented as separate chapters, but as a single, evolving story across islands.

You leave with a clear understanding of why Orkney emerged as a political and spiritual centre, how Shetland functioned as the outer edge of that world, and how both islands shaped each other over thousands of years.

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Very few guides offer a combined Orkney and Shetland tour of this depth.

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Fewer still lead it personally across both island groups.

What You’ll Experience on This Expedition

The structure is refined during consultation, but a typical Norse Legacy journey may include:

Orkney: Foundations and Power
Neolithic monuments, Bronze Age landscapes, and Norse political centres explored as a continuous story rather than separate eras.

Layered Landscapes
Iron Age and Norse sites set within older ritual and agricultural landscapes, showing continuity rather than replacement.

Shetland: Edge and Exchange
Private guided exploration of Shetland’s Norse, prehistoric, and coastal sites, focused on movement, trade, and survival at the edge of the Norse world.

Movement Through the North
Working harbours, exposed coastlines, and sea routes that explain how people, power, and belief moved across the North Atlantic.

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This expedition is not about ticking locations.
It is about understanding how the North once functioned.

Routes and emphasis may be reordered, substituted, or extended. Flexibility is fundamental.

What This Private Expedition Is

A fully private, multi-day guided tour linking Orkney and Shetland into one coherent journey.

Rather than treating Shetland as an add-on, this expedition is built from the ground up. Time is deliberately shared between islands, with Neolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Age, and Norse sites woven together across the journey rather than separated by location.

There is no fixed route.

The expedition can begin in Orkney or Shetland and is typically structured over three days, with options to extend depending on travel flow, interests, and conditions.

Pacing, accommodation style, transport method, and daily structure are shaped during consultation.

This is not fixed-route touring.
It is carefully co-ordinated, adaptive travel.

Why Take This Expedition With Me

I was born in Orkney, and I have spent extended periods working and living between Orkney and Shetland on large projects. I understand these islands as part of the same northern system, not as isolated destinations.

I guide both islands personally. I do not hand sections over, and I do not dilute the narrative.

Clients choose this expedition because it is grounded, coherent, and led with lived understanding. I do not dramatize Norse history or oversell certainty where none exists. I work with evidence, context, and landscape.

Where answers are clear, I explain them.
Where mystery remains, I leave space for it.

I take only one expedition at a time. If weather shifts, we adapt. If a site deserves more time, we stay. If something unexpected appears, light, wildlife, or conversation, we make room for it.

A detailed video consultation is essential. That is where we confirm feasibility, comfort levels, logistics, and whether this expedition is right for you.

Cost & What’s Included

From £2,000 (up to 4 clients)
Final price confirmed after consultation

Included
• Private guiding throughout Orkney and Shetland
• Full narrative interpretation across all periods visited
• All guiding fees
• Vehicle hire during guided days
• Entry fees to included guided sites
• Calm pacing with no unnecessary repetition

Not included
• Accommodation
• Inter-island travel (ferry or flight)
• Meals and refreshments
• Personal expenses

All logistics, options, and costs are discussed clearly during planning.

Flexibility & Expedition Enhancements

This expedition is entirely bespoke.

Options may include:
• Extending the journey
• Slowing the pace further
• Adjusting how time is split between islands
• Deepening focus on specific periods or themes

Design happens during consultation.

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If this sounds like the right tour for you, the next step is a short video consultation. This allows us to confirm timing, priorities, and pacing, removing guesswork and ensuring you experience the most complete and rewarding tour possible. Email is available, but the call is faster, clearer, and saves time on both sides.

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