---
type: Place
title: Port Ilvess
description: The capital and largest harbour town of the Republic of Kelvarra, home
  to the Institute.
tags:
- kelvarra
- harbour
- the-institute
- tidal-survey
resource: raw/a-life-at-the-water-line.md
timestamp: '2026-07-16T14:52:05Z'
citadel_version: 0.3.0
---

# Port Ilvess

Port Ilvess is a harbour town in the [Republic of Kelvarra](republic-of-kelvarra.md), home to [The Institute](../organizations/the-institute.md).[^s1] It is the Republic's capital and the only town of any size, with a little over sixty-one thousand inhabitants at the census of 1995.[^s4] It is a harbour town before it is anything else: the streets run down to the water, and the life of the place is still governed by the arrivals board at the packet pier.[^s5]

Port Ilvess's harbour board owned the [Old Customs House](old-customs-house.md); unable to heat it, the board let [Maren Aldervane](../persons/maren-aldervane.md) use its two driest rooms on a handshake in 1949, and she founded the Institute there.[^s1] [Tomas Ferrick](../persons/tomas-ferrick.md) later built the clock in the town's harbour tower, setting it going on 4 March 1963.[^s2][^s6][^s10]

The Almanac highlights the Skerry Light at the harbour mouth, the fish market under the arcades (mornings only), and the tide clock in the harbour tower, of which the town is "inordinately and justifiably proud."[^s6]

Three of the [Brann Tidal Survey](../projects/brann-tidal-survey.md)'s nine tidal gauge stations stand about the town's harbour and roads.[^s7] In the equinoctial gales of the Survey's 1987 season, two storm surges drove through the roads in September; the greater put the fish market arcades under water for four hours, and the Survey has renewed its recommendation on the height of the north quay to the harbour board every year for eleven years running, without success.[^s8] Proved daily that season, the harbour tower's tide clock kept its rate within four seconds in the month — a performance the Survey says no instrument of its kind on the mainland approaches — despite the tower being twice struck by gulls and once, during the storm surge, by a fish.[^s9]

Aldervane reports that people in Port Ilvess consider her difficult, a claim she accepts: "I have measured the claim, and it holds."[^s3]

## See also
- [The Institute](../organizations/the-institute.md)
- [Maren Aldervane](../persons/maren-aldervane.md)
- [Old Customs House](old-customs-house.md)
- [Republic of Kelvarra](republic-of-kelvarra.md)
- [Brann Tidal Survey](../projects/brann-tidal-survey.md)
- [Tomas Ferrick](../persons/tomas-ferrick.md)

## Sources
[^s1]: [raw/a-life-at-the-water-line.md](../../raw/a-life-at-the-water-line.md), lines 26-27 — the harbour board and the Old Customs House (ingested 2026-07-04)
[^s2]: [raw/a-life-at-the-water-line.md](../../raw/a-life-at-the-water-line.md), lines 45-47 — the harbour tower clock (ingested 2026-07-04)
[^s3]: [raw/a-life-at-the-water-line.md](../../raw/a-life-at-the-water-line.md), lines 66-67 — reputation in Port Ilvess (ingested 2026-07-04)
[^s4]: [raw/almanac-of-kelvarra-1998.md](../../raw/almanac-of-kelvarra-1998.md), lines 20-21 — capital status and population at the 1995 census (ingested 2026-07-04)
[^s5]: [raw/almanac-of-kelvarra-1998.md](../../raw/almanac-of-kelvarra-1998.md), lines 21-23 — harbour town character and the packet pier (ingested 2026-07-04)
[^s6]: [raw/almanac-of-kelvarra-1998.md](../../raw/almanac-of-kelvarra-1998.md), lines 23-25 — visitor sights: the Skerry Light, the fish market, and the harbour tower's tide clock (ingested 2026-07-04)
[^s7]: [raw/brann-tidal-survey-1987.md](../../raw/brann-tidal-survey-1987.md), lines 12-15 — three of the BTS's nine stations about the harbour and roads (ingested 2026-07-04)
[^s8]: [raw/brann-tidal-survey-1987.md](../../raw/brann-tidal-survey-1987.md), lines 21-28 — the 1987 storm surges and the north quay recommendation (ingested 2026-07-04)
[^s9]: [raw/brann-tidal-survey-1987.md](../../raw/brann-tidal-survey-1987.md), lines 30-36 — the harbour tower tide clock's 1987 performance (ingested 2026-07-04)
[^s10]: [raw/ferrick-workshop-notes.md](../../raw/ferrick-workshop-notes.md), lines 47-52 — setting the clock going in the harbour tower, 4 March 1963 (ingested 2026-07-04)
