Kirkaldy worked as a science lecturer and visiting teacher in London, also working as private tutor for a short time at
Castle Howard. She later returned to Oxford to serve as the women's tutor for students in the School of Natural Sciences at the
Association for the Education of Women from 1894 to 1930. She also served as a tutor and lecturer to the Oxford Women's Societies. Outside of tutoring and lecturing, in 1929 she was made an honorary fellow of Somerville College in 1929 and sat on the council of
St. Hugh's College. She wrote multiple books, the translation of J. E. V. Boas's
Textbook of Zoology in 1896 with
E. Pollard, as well as co-authoring
An Introduction to the Study of Biology in 1909 with
I. M. Drummond. ==Legacy==