Kirkwall, Scotland • Scotland
The harbour town of Kirkwall is Orkney's capital and its main port, in the KW postcode area with ferries to Aberdeen and Shetland and flights to the Scottish mainland. Work across the islands — construction, energy, public services — concentrates here. KrewBase houses crews in whole serviced properties in and around Kirkwall, with bills, Wi-Fi and parking arranged before arrival and one monthly invoice going to the company.
Kirkwall's stock is built to last: stone and harled townhouses along the old streets, cottages in the lanes behind the harbour, and newer estates on the town's edges with semis and detached houses. For crews, the edge-of-town estates usually win — driveways, garages, four bedrooms and room to park a van without a permit puzzle. The older town houses have character, but character doesn't dry wet work kit or take a trailer, so we match the stock to the crew. Being on the edge of town also means the morning run to any Mainland site starts on the right side of the harbour traffic.
We check every property against the crew's reality: parking for the actual vehicles, Wi-Fi speed-tested before check-in, two bathrooms where five or more stay, and a house that stays warm through an Orcadian winter without the crew learning how the oil boiler works. If it fails those basics, it doesn't reach your shortlist. An Orcadian winter is the strictest inspector a house can have, and we apply it in advance rather than apologising afterwards.
Orkney's economy keeps a steady flow of crews on the islands: construction and housing development around Kirkwall, marine and harbour work, public services including healthcare at the island's hospital, and one of Scotland's most active renewable-energy sectors. Grid and energy jobs across the islands bring longer contracts, and island infrastructure work adds shorter stays throughout the year. None of it is going anywhere either — the islands' energy resource and their public infrastructure guarantee work for years rather than months.
Because sites are scattered across Mainland and the connected isles rather than concentrated on one big development, most crews base in Kirkwall and drive out each day. That makes a well-placed house more useful than any hotel — somewhere the crew can cook, wash kit, park properly and actually sleep between shifts. It also keeps costs sane: hotel rates on the islands climb sharply when the ferries are busy, while a crew house stays at the agreed figure.
Most of Mainland Orkney's sites are within an hour's drive of Kirkwall on the A960, A964 and A965, and the Churchill Barriers link the southern isles by road. For work on the outer islands, the inter-island ferries and flights run from Kirkwall itself, so nothing in the county is more than a connection away. Send us the site location and we shortlist by real drive or ferry time, not guesswork, before you commit to anything. Flight connections through the airport mean crew changes from the mainland can happen the same day rather than costing a working day in transit.
The town also has the islands' main shops, fuel and suppliers, which matters more than it sounds — when a job needs parts at short notice, being fifteen minutes from the trade counter instead of two ferry crossings can be the difference between a day lost and a day worked. For a crew on a tight programme, that half-hour round trip to the suppliers can be worth more than the extra hour in bed.
Whole-property lets, with heating, electricity, council tax, water, Wi-Fi and TV licence in our name and inside one monthly figure. Wi-Fi is speed-tested before check-in, parking proven against the actual vehicles, and crews of five or more get two bathrooms so the morning doesn't turn into a queue. Weekly cleaning and fresh linen are part of the deal, and the house is checked over before the crew arrives.
Maintenance is ours — the crew reports it, we sort it, without anyone chasing a landlord across an island. One monthly invoice, paid by card, no booking fees, no minimum crew or stay. Island contracts welcome, however long the job runs, and the terms don't change with the ferry timetable. Winter storms may delay a ferry, but they don't change the rent, the heating or the invoice.
Send us the requirement — town, dates, headcount, vehicles and any shift pattern we should know about. We come back within 2 hours with a shortlist from property we already hold, not a search we have just started. You pick, we confirm, the crew moves in, and we stay on it for the length of the job. One monthly invoice, card payment for limited companies, no booking fees.
Within two hours of your enquiry in most cases. Give us the site location, crew size and start date, and we'll return a shortlist of whole houses in Kirkwall checked for parking, heating and real travel time to the site. The shortlist costs nothing and you're not committed to booking, so it's a free way to see what's realistic on the islands.
Yes — Stromness, the East Mainland, the Churchill Barriers isles and sites right across Mainland Orkney. We shortlist by actual drive or ferry time from the site, so a crew working in the West Mainland gets a different list to one five minutes from town, and nobody ends up commuting past their own job every morning.
We verify it before booking. The edge-of-town estates have driveways and garages that take work vans comfortably, while some of the old town streets are tighter. Tell us the vehicles and we'll only shortlist Kirkwall properties where everything fits off the road — no relying on harbour-side spaces that belong to someone else.
Yes — heating, electricity, council tax, water, Wi-Fi and TV licence are all in our name and inside one fixed monthly figure. Island energy costs are our problem to manage, not yours, and the price doesn't drift with the weather or the fuel market. Wi-Fi is speed-tested before check-in, so the crew knows the numbers they're getting.
That's the standard arrangement. One monthly invoice covers rent and every bill paid by card, with no booking fees. Your accounts team deals with a single predictable cost, and the crew never touches a meter or an Orcadian fuel bill — the paperwork is one invoice a month, wherever in the islands the job sits.
Yes — long contracts are most of what we do. The crew gets the whole property with weekly cleaning, tested Wi-Fi and two bathrooms for five or more, and the company gets one monthly invoice however many months the job runs. Extensions are handled with notice rather than repricing, and the crew isn't asked to move out because a shorter booking came along.
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Need beds in Kirkwall? Send us the dates, the headcount and the shift pattern. We come back within 2 hours with a shortlist from property we already hold.
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