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Kirkwall harbour and the bay

Harbour wall · Salt water · in Orkney

The piers and basin at the head of the Bay of Kirkwall, with sand and weed in the bay and the harbour stone giving hard standing and a little depth. Sheltered water at the top of a shallow, muddy inlet.

Safety: moving water and currents — can cause serious injury or death. One more point applies here.

What each one does, and what reduces it ↓

FishingHQ describes what this place is, not whether you may fish it. Access, permits and who to ask.

What you can catch here

Documented at this place, grouped by how you would be fishing, with how strongly the sources support each one. This is what has been written down, not a forecast, and being listed is never permission to fish.

From the shore · 6

What these strengths mean
Regular local target
Fishing sources describe this as a normal local target here, not merely as caught.
Seasonal
Well supported, and concentrated in part of the year rather than spread through it.
Recorded here
At least one credible public account of this species being caught here. That is all it means.
How breadth is counted
A fish documented at six marks is shown as six marks: breadth never raises the strength on its own. A fishery account describes the fishing; a recorded catch reports one specific catch. How evidence is weighed.

How people fish it

Practised here: Sea fishing.

Methods the sources name for this ground. Each one is explained in full on its own page.

  • Ledgering

    Fishing a bait on the bottom held by a weight, with no float — the simplest way to fish at distance, in depth, or in wind.

  • Float fishing

    Suspending a bait at a controlled depth beneath a buoyant indicator — the most visual, most controllable and most widely applicable method in angling.

  • Feathering and multi-lure traces

    A string of small lures on droppers, worked in the water column — how most people in Britain and Ireland catch their first sea fish, and the method most likely to catch far more than anybody intended.

Baits and lures for these fish

The baits and lures each of the fish above is commonly taken on, from that fish’s own page. This is what works for the fish, not a report of what people use on this particular water — local knowledge and the conditions on the day still decide.

Baits

Lures

How to catch them: Cod fishing · Flounder fishing · Mackerel fishing · Bass fishing · Whiting fishing

The ground and the water

The ground
The piers and basin at the head of the Bay of Kirkwall, with sand and weed in the bay and the harbour stone giving hard standing and a little depth. Sheltered water at the top of a shallow, muddy inlet.
Exposure
Sheltered inside the bay, open north down Wide Firth.

Through the year

Mackerel in the summer; the rest through the year. Named as fishing best after dark.

Safety

Moving water and currents — Can cause serious injury or death

Tidal streams among the strongest in the world produce races, overfalls and standing waves that form and disperse with the tide. Small craft caught in a race on the wrong state face conditions that no amount of paddling or small-engine power overcomes.

What reduces it: Plan against tidal timing rather than wind. Obtain local knowledge of the streams before going afloat. Do not attempt to cross or work a race on an unfamiliar state of tide, and treat the tidal atlas as primary rather than supplementary information.

Cliffs and rock platforms — Can cause serious injury or death

The Atlantic-facing coast takes full ocean swell against high cliff and rock platform, and swell arrives from distant weather with no local warning.

What reduces it: Check the swell forecast rather than the wind forecast. Watch any exposed platform for a sustained period before committing. Never fish a mark you could not leave quickly, and accept that leaving is frequently the right answer.

Rules and access

FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Sea angling in Scotland is not rod-licensed, but access rights under the Scottish Outdoor Access Code carry responsibilities, and harbour, local authority, marine conservation and fisheries measures all apply and all change. Check the current position with the Marine Directorate, the harbour or local authority and the land manager before going.

Particular to this water: This is an owned and operated structure. Whether angling is allowed on it, when, from where and on what terms is the operator's decision, is frequently seasonal, and changes without notice.

Who holds the answer:

  • The Scottish Government Marine Directorate, for sea fisheries measures in Scottish waters.
  • The harbour authority or land manager, for access to the structure or the ground.
  • The local authority, for shellfish harvesting classification.
  • The Scottish fisheries and marine authorities, for sea fisheries rules, minimum sizes and protected areas
  • The relevant local authority environmental health service, for shellfish harvesting area classification and closures
  • The harbour authority, for access to piers, harbours and moorings, which are working infrastructure rather than public amenity
  • Local charter skippers and clubs, whose knowledge of the tidal streams is the operative safety information rather than a convenience

Nearby fishing

Other publicly documented places within about 40 km, by distance. Positions are approximate public geography and are never exact marks.

Kirkwall harbour and the bayNewark BayTingwall PierScapa FlowThe Brough of BirsayDuncansby Head and the Pentland Firth
Kirkwall harbour and the bay and the publicly documented places around it. Approximate positions, not marks. On a narrow screen the plot is wider than the screen and scrolls sideways inside its frame. Positions are approximate by design — they are capped at about a hundred metres and describe where a named public place is, not where fish are and not a mark. Everything plotted here is also listed below.

Sources for this place

  • Sea Angler — Bauer Media (Specialist angling publication)Relied on for: Long-running published description of British sea angling practice by region, ground type and named mark.FishingHQ's interpretation of what it saysCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
  • General angling website restatements of established technique — Various (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: Widely restated public descriptions of which places are conventionally fished and how, recorded as practitioner consensus rather than as scholarship, and not relied on for access, permission or any current rule.Background and mechanism onlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
  • British Sea Fishing: Scottish shore marks — British Sea Fishing (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: Which species are fished for at each named Scottish shore mark and how the fishing divides between the winter and the summer half of the year.States this directlyPassage read and verified

How FishingHQ labels evidence is explained in the evidence policy. Last reviewed 2026-08-16.

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