Founded in 1924 when the Canadian Pacific Railway constructed its branch line to Val Marie, it was incorporated as a village in June 1928.

[1] Like the vast majority of Saskatchewan villages, Orkney was constructed as a planned railway townsite.

Before construction, the area was served by the one-room school and rural post office at Diebolt.

To commemorate Saskatchewan's 2005 centennial, its bell was mounted on a cairn in the Orkney Cemetery.

[1] When the Orkney post office still operated, the village was allocated the postal code S0N 1V0.