Free entry for everyone; no membership card is needed.
The Trust's page does not say how parking is charged.
Historic Scotland says parking is available and lists car and coach parking, with two disabled bays closer to the site, but publishes no charge or free statement, so the status is recorded as unknown. There is no parking at the circle itself; from the car park walk over the road and up the path, a fair distance for anyone with limited mobility. Busy at weekends.
Driving pin: Google's Brodgar Car Park listing, matching the OpenStreetMap car park, 386 m from HES's pin. The ring is about 5 miles north-east of Stromness on the B9055. Historic Scotland names no bus service, only its journey planners.
The Ring of Brodgar is one of the most spectacular prehistoric monuments in the British Isles, the largest stone circle in Scotland, standing on a strip of land between the Lochs of Stenness and Harray, ringed by hills like a natural amphitheatre. Built probably between 2600 and 2400 BC, it was a truly circular ring of 60 stones, 104 metres across, inside a great rock-cut ditch; 36 stones survive, up to 4.7 metres tall, among burial mounds added over the next thousand years. Folk tales say the stones were giants caught dancing and turned to stone by the rising sun, and the geologist Hugh Miller thought them mysteriously stern and invincibly silent. It was scheduled in 1882, among the first places in Britain protected for its history, and is part of the Heart of Neolithic Orkney World Heritage Site with Skara Brae, Maeshowe and the Stones of Stenness. Park across the road, follow the one-way grass path, dress for wind and rain, and look out for the free ranger walks.
Historic Scotland: 'The Ring of Brodgar is free to visit and open year-round.' Strong footwear is recommended; follow the one-way system, and some sections of the inner path may be closed at times to let the grass recover. Free ranger-led walks, with no booking, meet at the Brodgar car park at 1pm (Thursdays through the winter of 2026 to 2027, until 25 March; check HES's what's-on page); dogs on leads are welcome on them. Drones are not allowed.
Grass paths, uneven and muddy in places, on an exposed site with no shelter; dress for wind and rain. There are no toilets: the nearest public toilets are at the Maeshowe Visitor Centre, about 2 miles away. No shop or cafe; HES sells an optional Orkney digital guide online.
Dogs: Dogs are welcome in the outdoor areas, which is the whole site, on a lead throughout.
Photo: Standing stones of the Ring of Brodgar among heather, with the Loch of Stenness and Orkney hills behind. Stevekeiretsu, CC BY-SA 3.0. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ring_of_Brodgar,_Orkney.jpg. Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0. Resized and cropped for display; derivatives retain the source licence.
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Dog access not confirmed
5 km on mainly well-maintained grassy tracks from the Stones of Stenness car park, round the Ring of Brodgar clockwise and back; softer in wet weather; a short road section with no footpath over the bridge; close gates where sheep graze. Free.
