Cruise control: could a £5 ‘entry’ fee help balance Orkney’s needs with tourist demand?

With tourists outnumbering locals by 20:1, islanders say levy is needed to help protect neolithic sites and maintain public services

Artisan jewellery, gift and whisky shops crowd the main street of Kirkwall on Orkney. The town even has a new sushi shop, offering bento boxes and matcha cheesecake.

Once home to the Viking earls who ruled the islands, Kirkwall has hit it rich: it tops the UK's charts for cruise ship visits, as American, German and Italian tourists descend on remarkable neolithic sites such as Skara Brae and its medieval cathedral.