Lerwick vs Kirkwall? How does Lerwick compare to Kirkwall?

I’ve been to Shetland six times and Orkney four times. Each time I’ve travelled a lot round the islands and during those travels have popped in and out of their respective capitals numerous times. So I feel like I know Shetland’s Lerwick and Orkney’s Kirkwall pretty well. Well enough, anyway, to have formed opinions on them.

People expect them to be similar, but they’re not. They each have their own distinctive look and particular vibe. I like both for different reasons and when asked which was my favourite was a bit stumped. Of course, my instinct was to say Lerwick seeing as how I feel Shetland is my soul home and all, but with only a second’s thought I started to come up with lots of wonderful things about Kirkwall too.

How to choose? How to compare Lerwick with Kirkwall? I decided to come up with my own Lerwick vs Kirkwall version of Top Trumps and give them both a score on lots of different aspects.

My point scoring will consist of a mix of facts and my own personal opinions. I’m the final judge, though as always, I’ll welcome your thoughts in the comments.

Kirkwall was the first place I visited in the islands. That was back in 2002 when I went up to Orkney for a week during the St Magnus arts festival. I didn’t have a vehicle at the time and so travelled up there by train, bus, ferry and another bus. I stayed in a tiny hostel near the town centre.

Coming from Manchester and having only just left London after living there for years, I couldn’t  get my head round how tiny Kirkwall was. I’d have a ticket for an event starting at, oh say 2pm, and wouldn’t want to be late so I’d leave my hostel in plenty of time. I knew I didn’t have to allow a couple hours like I did in London and I didn’t even have to allow half an hour like I did in Manchester. But I couldn’t get my head round only having to allow 2½  minutes. Consequently I did a lot of waiting around outside venues waiting for them to open.

In 2010 I went to Shetland for the first time. I remembered Kirkwall and so expected Lerwick to be small, which it was. Fine. Then in 2013 I went back to Orkney and to Kirkwall. Having got used to Lerwick and having already been to Kirkwall I wasn’t expecting to be surprised by Kirkwall. I expected it to be the same as Lerwick. It was not. It felt like a huge metropolis when compared to Lewick. The roads seemed busy, the main street (Albert St) was full of people, there were wide roads and a huge car park. If I now thought this about Kirkwall, goodness knows what I’d have thought of Lerwick if that had been the first place I’d gone to back in 2002!

Anyway, lets get on with the scoring in the Inverted Sheep Top Trumps of Lerwick vs Kirkwall and see how Lewick compares to Kirkwall. Which do you think will come out on top?

Ease of navigating my way down the high street

Kirkwall is bigger than Lerwick. It’s 3.63 km² and has a population of 9,293 compared to Lerwick’s 3.15 km² and 6,958 strong population. Okay, so not hugely bigger, yet it feels it. It might be because it’s flatter and so has a more open feel. Lerwick is built into a hill with lots of tiny, narrow lanes which climb steeply from the high street. This gives it a smaller, more closed-in feel. And although both get lots of visits from cruise ships in the summer months, it’s in Kirkwall that you really notice it. The town is completely different on the days when a ship is in (sometimes more than one) and it can get so crowded on the high street I might as well be on London’s Oxford Street. It can be just as difficult to make my way down it. If I want lunch on one of these days I’ve learnt to not even bother trying to get in any of the cafes and just grab something from the supermarket to eat in the van instead.

Although Lerwick can get busy it never feels as stifling as Kirkwall does. So for my scores (drum roll) I’m going to give Kirkwall one point because it is a nice street and I do usually enjoy wandering up and down it. Lerwick will get one point for the same reason and a second point for never feeling so crowded.

Amazing, beautiful, stunning, old buildings

Lerwick has got rather a nice old town hall with some interesting stained-glass windows and of course there’s the row of lodberries (old houses built out onto the water – Ann Cleeves’s character Jimmy Perez lives in one, so you will have seen them if you’ve ever watched the BBC’s Shetland which is based on her books).

Kirkwall has got a blummin’ massive ancient cathedral built out of striking red rock. It towers over the town. Next to it are the ruins of not one, but two palaces built in the times of the Earls.

I think that makes it 3-2 in Kirkwall’s favour.

Museums

One of my favourite museums ever is the Shetland Museum in Lerwick. It’s a place I can lose hours in. It’s so good I’m going to give it two points. Kirkwall also has a pretty good museum and a rather interesting little wireless museum. Neither of them can top the Shetland Museum, but because it has two museums I’ll give Kirkwall two points as well.

Coffee shops and cafes

One of my favourite cafes is the Peerie Cafe in Lerwick. I love going there for home-made soup and cheesecake. Their scones, muffins and sandwiches are pretty good too. Lerwick also has plenty of other nice places to eat or drop in for a coffee.

Kirkwall has plenty of cafes but I haven’t tried as many as I have in Lerwick (see the point above about them being too busy to get inside) and actually the Lerwick ones just seem more appealing to me anyway. Though I did rather like the tiny Strynd tea room in Kirkwall.

I’m awarding three points to Lerwick and one to Kirkwall in this category.

Shopping

Kirkwall has a few more ‘chain’ stores than Lerwick, but neither has many. What I love about shopping on both streets is that they are filled with independent retailers – something that is becoming really hard to find in modern Britain. Both towns have a really good bookshop which sells a good selection of books on Orkney and Shetland. They both have really nice shops selling art, knitted goods, homewares, locally made jewellery, fancy fudge and chocolates, handmade soap, and so on. Kirkwall also has a couple of nice deli shops. Both have banks and a post office. I love browsing along both streets and always find something nice to buy.

I’m going to award two points each for this category.

Supermarkets

Lerwick has a Tesco and a Co-op. Kirkwall has a bigger Tesco, a Co-op and Lidl. That makes it 3-2 to Kirkwall.

Leisure Centre

Both towns have a leisure centre which has great facilities including pools with water slides,  gym, saunas, exercise classes, squash courts, etc. They both also have a cafe. I use them for the showers which are fine as leisure centre showers go, but not anything fancy. I think I slightly prefer the showers in Lerwick, but there’s not much in it. I did find myself using Kirkwall leisure centre for the internet this year when the library let me down.

I’ll give them both one point for facilities and Kirkwall an extra point because I had a nice area to work in AND the showers were only £1 compared to £1.85 (!) in Lerwick.

Library

Both towns have a very good library. The library in Kirkwall is in quite a new building and bigger than the one in Lerwick. It has a large quiet workroom upstairs, a computer room downstairs and a coffee machine in the lobby. I tried working in the library this summer, but had a problem with the internet – for some reason I couldn’t access my blog on my laptop or phone and neither could the librarians. Yet it showed up fine on their computers which were using a cable to get the internet. After a lot of messing about we decided it must be something with the wifi. They gave me some credit so I could work on their computers, but as everything I need is on my laptop there was only so much I could do. I ended up in the leisure centre which was actually a really nice place to work and my website loaded fine.

Lerwick’s library is smaller, but it’s in an old church and has stained-glass windows. Upstairs there’s a great Shetland Archive, sofas and a little work area. There was a problem with the internet this year which was quite frustrating, but that wasn’t the library’s fault – an undersea cable coming north from Orkney had been broken which cut off the internet to Shetland and Faroes. I did manage to get quite a lot of work done though. The other problem I had this year was the coffee machine, which uses those pod-thingies, ran out of coffee and they were unable to get any more from their supplier. Once I knew this I brought my own coffee in so it wasn’t a problem.

Both libraries are lovely and the staff are really helpful in both so they’ll each get one point for that. I’m also going to give an extra completely biased point to Lerwick just because it’s one of my favourite workspaces (even with the internet and coffee problems this year).

Parking

Parking is easy in both towns and free in both towns. Very close to the centre there is pay parking or limited time parking, but as the towns are so small you don’t have to walk far to find either a free long-stay car park or free street parking. That’s one point each.

Campsite

Lerwick used to have a nice campsite close to town which had plenty of space for campervans or tents. It closed a few years ago so a new school could be built on the site and as far as I’m aware there are no plans for a new one. The nearest campsites are now miles away. Bad enough if you have a vehicle but terrible if you have a tent (or a big motorhome you don’t want to drive every day) as public transport is pretty limited. What people end up doing is having to find somewhere to park up each night or a bit of ground they can pitch a tent on. As the public toilets close each night as well it’s really not ideal. (Tip: (not a great tip, but the best I’ve been able to come up with) park by the Knab as it’s really quiet at night and you won’t be disturbed. There are toilets but they are locked at night. Tesco is open from 7am till 11pm and they have toilets so you can drive round there. I have seen people in a tent here as well, but it would be a very long walk round to Tesco for the loo).

Kirkwall still has a campsite that looks very nice and is close to the centre. I’ve never stayed here so can’t really comment on it, but will give it a point for being there.

Lerwick – you get a big fat zero for this category.

Cinema

A new complex called Mareel opened in Lerwick a few years ago and includes a cinema as well as a cafe bar. The cinema in Kirkwall is in the leisure centre. Both cinemas show a good range of films so that’s one point each.

Nightlife

Yeah, right! If you’re after a clubbin’ and partying Ibiza style holiday these probably aren’t the places for you. Both towns have pubs and you can often find live music. But a ‘big’ night out? Not really. Though actually, one of my best night’s out EVER was in Lerwick. But that was at Up Helly Aa which happens once a year in the middle of winter and you have to be pretty lucky to get an invite to it. So I suppose I can’t really count that here. I’ll give each town one point because they do have pubs.

So, twelve categories and numerous points. I deliberately graded each place without keeping a tally because I was afraid I might have swayed it in favour of Lerwick if I thought Lerwick was going to lose. Once I’d got my scores I put them all in a table. See below to find out which town wins the Inverted Sheep Top Trumps of the North Isles’ Capital Towns.

That wasn’t a fix, honest! And actually now that they’ve both scored equally it makes it even harder for me to answer the question about which town I prefer.

So now it’s over to you. What else do you think I should have included? Do you agree with my scoring? Share your thoughts and opinions in the comments below. 

Like this? Read these next:

Graemsay – A Perfect Day on a Perfect Island
Shopping and Eating in Lerwick
Up Helly Aa – the night

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