Kirkwall Harbour flood prevention scheme

The Kirkwall Harbour flood prevention scheme is designed to protect low lying parts of central Kirkwall against flooding from the sea.

The stone wall along the harbour front is augmented with flood gates when forecasts predict there a flooding risk, creating a 1.1m high uninterrupted barrier around half-a-mile in length between Ayre Mills and St Catherine’s Place roundabout.

When the flood gates are in place, there will be an impact on access to Kirkwall Pier and the wider harbour area. It will also affect drivers, who will be unable to move vehicles in and out of the Waterfront West-Shapinsay Slip car park.

Together with the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) we will endeavour to give people plenty of advance warning that the flood gates are likely to be deployed.

If you live and work in Kirkwall, we would encourage you to sign up for SEPA’s new Coastal Flood Warning service for Kirkwall. This aims to provide advanced warning when coastal flooding is likely to occur (see section above on how to sign up for flood warnings for Kirkwall and other areas of Orkney).

In addition, the Council will provide updates on the OIC_Roads Twitter feed when the flood defences are – or are likely to be – deployed. The OIC_Roads Twitter feed also provides updates when the Churchill Barriers are closed, or when closure of the barriers is under consideration.

The OIC_Roads Twitter feed is available here. You do not need to be a Twitter user. Simply follow the link to find updates.