The Loch of Kirbister is a small, shallow, somewhat triangular-shaped loch located on
Mainland Orkney
The Mainland, also known as Hrossey and Pomona, is the main island of Orkney, Scotland. Both of Orkney's burghs, Kirkwall and Stromness, lie on the island, which is also the heart of Orkney's ferry and air connections.
Seventy-five per cent of O ...
,
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
, in the parish of
Orphir
Orphir (pronounced , Old Norse: Jorfjara/OrfjaraPedersen, Roy (January 1992) ''Orkneyjar ok Katanes'' (map, Inverness, Nevis Print)) is a parish and settlement on Mainland, Orkney. It is approximately southwest of Kirkwall, and comprises a se ...
. It lies southwest of
Kirkwall
Kirkwall ( sco, Kirkwaa, gd, Bàgh na h-Eaglaise, nrn, Kirkavå) is the largest town in Orkney, an archipelago to the north of mainland Scotland.
The name Kirkwall comes from the Norse name (''Church Bay''), which later changed to ''Kirkv ...
on cultivated land between two hills. There is a small ( by ) turf-covered islet known as the Groundwater of Holm just off the eastern shore of the loch. The islet exhibits stone traces of an oval structure and a small projecting pier.
The loch is a popular spot for trout fishing, and the Orkney Trout Fishing Association operates a hatchery at the Kirbister pumphouse located on the edge of the loch.
Mill Burn, the southern outflow from the loch, was used to power the 18th-century
Kirbister Mill.
The loch was surveyed
in 1903 by T.N. Johnston and R.C. Marshall and later charted as part of
Sir John Murray's ''The Bathymetrical Survey of Fresh-Water Lochs of Scotland 1897-1909''.
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References
Kirbister
Kirbister
Kirbister
Mainland, Orkney
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