KIRKWALL, the chief town in the Orkney Islands, is situated in long. 3, 23. 6. W. and in lat. 58. 59. 31. N. It consists principally of one crooked, narrow street, about a mile in length. The number of inhabitants in the town and adjoining parish was by the last census 3721. There are four places of worship in the parish, the established church, the United Secession meeting-house, a congregation in connection with the Associate Synod of Original Seceders, and a congregation of Independents. There are ten schools in Kirkwall, attended by 422 scholars; of these, seventy-one are learning Latin, and twelve mathematics. The entire population between the ages of six and twenty are able to read, and in the parish there are only ten or twelve persons unable to read. There are from ninety to a hundred persons on the poor’s roll, who are relieved by the contributions made at the church door, which average about L.50 a year. The trade of Kirkwall, in relation to the population, is considerable. For the year ending 31st December 1834, the amount of tonnage of vessels cleared outwards, coastwise and foreign, was 8248; and, for the same period, the amount of tonnage inwards was 10,304. There were in December 1835 seventy-eight registered vessels belonging to the port, with a tonnage of 4238, and navigated by 326 seamen. The custom-house duties on goods imported from December 1833 to December 1834 amounted to L.1148; there were no export duties. The principal imports are∙wood, hemp, iron, tar, groceries, coals, cloths; and the exports consist chiefly of kelp, fish, corn, cattle, and wool. It has been found impossible to give any thing at all approaching to the correct value of the articles imported and exported, as there is no record of these kept. The principal buildings in Kirkwall are the cathedral of St Magnus, the choir of which is still occupied as the parish church; the carl’s palace; and that which formerly belonged to the bishops of Orkney. St Magnus’s Church was founded by Ronald, count of Orkney, about the middle jof the twelfth century. It is in the form of a cross; its length is 225 feet, and its breadth fifty-six; the roof is seventy-one feet from the floor, and the spire rises about seventy feet higher. The roof is supported in all by thirty-two pillars, of which the four that support the central tower are twenty-four feet in circumference. The earl’s palace was commenced about 230 years ago, by Patrick earl of Orkney, and, though now in ruins, its remains show that it must have been a strong and magnificent edifice. The large hall is sixty feet long by twenty broad, and is lighted by four spacious windows. The bishop’s palace is almost an entire ruin, the only part that remains in any thing like preservation being a round tower erected by Bishop Reid, a statue of whom still occupies a niche fronting the cathedral. In this palace Haco king of Norway died on his return to Orkney, after the unsuccessful battle of Largs in 1263. The remains of an old building, the castle of Kirkwall, erected in the fourteenth century, by Henry St Clair, the first earl of that name, are still to be seen; and the antiquary will be gratified to learn that the house in which James V. passed the night during his visit to Orkney in 1540 is yet in existence. Kirkwall is the seat of the sheriff, commissary, and justice of peace courts. It is a royal burgh, and, along with Wick, Dingwall, Tain, Cromarty, and Dornoch, returns a member to parliament. There are fifty-eight voters in the town.