KIRKWALL, a royal burgh, seaport and capital of the Orkney islands, county of Orkney, Scotland. Pop. (1931) 3,517. It is situated at the head of a bay of the same name on the east of the island of Pomona, or Mainland, 247 m. N. of Leith and 64 m. N. of Wick by steamer. Much of the town is old-fashioned, its main street (nearly 1 m. long) being in parts so narrow that two vehicles cannot pass each other. Kirkwall has very few manufactures, the linen, kelp and straw-plaiting industries being extinct, but distilling and boat-building are carried on. The town is important not only as regards its shipping and the deep-sea fishery, but also as a distributing centre for the islands and the seat of the superior law courts. The port has two piers. Kirk wall received its first charter from James III. in 1486, but as it was disregarded by the earls of Orkney and others, parliament passed an act in 1670 confirming the charter granted by Charles II. in 1661. The cathedral of St. Magnus, a stately cruciform red sandstone structure in severest Romanesque with touches of Gothic, was founded by Jarl Rognvald (Earl Ronald) in 1137 in memory of his uncle Jarl Magnus who was assassinated in the island of Egilshay in 1115, and afterwards canonized and adopted as the patron saint of the Orkneys. The remains of Rognvald and St. Magnus were found in the cathedral in 1926. The choir was lengthened and the beautiful eastern rose window added by Bishop Stewart in 1511, and the porch and the western end of the nave were finished in 154o by Bishop Robert Reid. Saving that the upper half of the original spire was struck by lightning in 1671, and not rebuilt, the cathedral is complete, but it under went extensive repairs in the 19th century. The disproportionate
height and narrowness of the building lend it a certain distinction, but the sandstone has not resisted the effects of weather, and much of the external decorative work has perished. The choir is used as the parish church. The church of St. Olaf, from which the town took its name, was burned down by the English in 1502; and of the church erected on its site by Bishop Reid—the great est building the Orkneys ever had—only a fragment survives.
Nothing remains of the old castle, founded by Sir Henry Sin clair (d. 1400), earl and prince of Orkney and 1st earl of Caith ness, and the earthwork to the east of the town thrown up by the Cromwellians has been converted into a battery of the Orkney Artillery Volunteers. Adjoining the cathedral are the ruins of the bishop's palace, in which King Haco died after his defeat at Largs in 1263. The round tower, added by Bishop Reid in 1550, contains a niche with an effigy believed to represent the founder, who also endowed the grammar school which is still in existence. To the east are the ruins of the earl's palace, built about 1600 for Patrick Stewart, 2nd earl of Orkney, and on his forfeiture given to the bishops for a residence. Tankerness house is a char acteristic example of the old mansion of an Orkney laird There is daily communication with Stromness, and with Scrabster pier (Thurso), via Scapa pier, about 1 m. to the S. of Kirkwall; and steamers sail regularly from the harbour to Lerwick, Aberdeen, Leith, and other islands in the Orkneys. Good roads place the capital in touch with most places in the island.