page_title: Kirkwall
section_title: Culture and community
hierarchical_section_title: Kirkwall / Culture and community
caption_attribution_description: Orkney Library and Archive in Kirkwall in 2017
context_page_description: Kirkwall is the largest town of Orkney, an archipelago to the north of mainland Scotland.
  The name Kirkwall comes from the Norse name Kirkjuvágr, which later changed to Kirkvoe, Kirkwaa and Kirkwall.
context_section_description: The Orkney Library and Archive is in Kirkwall. Kirkwall also has the most northerly of the world's Carnegie libraries, which was opened by Andrew Carnegie and his wife in 1909. The building survives, although the library has since moved to a larger building on Junction Road.
  The town has two museums, the larger being Tankerness House Museum, which contains items of local historical interest within one of Scotland's best-preserved 16th-century town-houses. It is a Category A listed building Scotland. The prehistoric, Pictish and Viking collections are of international importance. The other museum is the Orkney Wireless Museum, dealing with the history of radio and recorded sound.
  There is a Royal National Lifeboat Institution lifeboat station.
  One of the major annual events in the town is the Ba Game, held each Christmas Day and New Year's Day between the Uppies and the Doonies, each team representing one half of the town.
caption: Orkney Library and Archive, Kirkwall
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