Kirkwall tide times

Kirkwall is the capital and main town of Orkney, sitting on a narrow isthmus on the Mainland island with the Wide Firth opening to the north and Scapa Flow to the south. The spring tidal range at Kirkwall reaches 3.5 metres above Chart Datum — moderate by British standards, but the sounds and channels surrounding the Mainland islands run with streams of 2 to 3 knots at springs, driven by the tidal gradient between the North Atlantic to the north and the North Sea to the south. The bay immediately in front of Kirkwall is sheltered, but Shapinsay Sound to the northeast pushes 2.5-knot streams past the ferry terminal on every tide.

The town is dominated by St Magnus Cathedral, built from red and yellow Orkney sandstone and begun in 1137 by Earl Rognvald Kolsson in memory of his murdered uncle, Magnus. It is the most complete Romanesque cathedral in Scotland and still an active Church of Scotland place of worship. The Cathedral sits at the head of the main street; the Earl's Palace and Bishop's Palace ruins face it across the road — three medieval buildings within 100 metres of each other, none behind glass, all free to enter the grounds. Kirkwall is a proper working town, not a heritage site with a population attached.

The ferry terminal at Kirkwall is the hub for the Orkney inter-island network. Ferries to Shapinsay (45 minutes), Stronsay, Sanday, Westray, Papa Westray, and Eday all depart from or near this terminal. The NorthLink Ferries service to Aberdeen runs overnight, 6 hours. Tidal state at the terminal matters for the inter-island boats; stream direction through Shapinsay Sound affects departure scheduling for the smaller vessels. The airport 3 kilometres south runs inter-island flights including the 2-minute Westray to Papa Westray service, sometimes cited as the world's shortest scheduled airline route.

Anglers fish the bay from the pier and from the rocks north of town. Coalfish (saithe), pollock, and mackerel are taken on feathers and lures from summer through autumn; the bay holds good numbers of coalfish in August and September when they chase whitebait inshore. Wrasse work the kelp-covered rocks on either side of the bay. Flatfish — plaice and flounder — are present in the sandy shallows on the north side of the bay. Shore crabbing for edible crabs is productive at low water in the rocky sections east of the pier.

Eider ducks are the most visible wildlife in Kirkwall Bay year-round. They nest on the Orkney islands in good numbers and the males' distinctive resonant cooing call is the background sound of the waterfront from April through June. Greylag geese graze the fields immediately inland. The Wide Firth to the north, seen from the Kirkwall waterfront at low water, is a flat tidal plain with a sand channel running through it — photographically stark, particularly in the low winter light when the sky takes on the dark blue characteristic of Orkney winters.

The Ba — a mass football match played on Christmas Day and New Year's Day between the Uppies (those born above the Cathedral) and the Doonies (those born below) — uses the town's streets as its pitch. The game has been played for centuries, has no fixed end time, can involve hundreds of players, and can last from noon until dark. It is one of the few surviving examples of traditional mass street football in Britain and draws crowds of spectators who line the route without knowing where the play will go.

Tidal predictions here use the Open-Meteo Marine gridded model (±45 minutes on timing, ±0.3 m on height). Not for navigation.