LERWICK
Lerwick is the Shetland ‘capital’, and Britain’s most northerly town. More than half of Shetland’s 22,000 people now live in and around this busy port, which makes an ideal centre for touring all the islands.
Although prehistoric tribes built a broch at Clickimin on the outskirts, Lerwick itself is much more recent. Founded on the shores of Bressay Sound in the early 17th century, as an illegal summer fair to service the Dutch herring fleet, it was burned down four times in its first hundred years (twice for wickedness by the jealous authorities in Scalloway and twice by enemy action in Dutch and French wars).
The fishing quays, ferry terminals, oilfield supply bases, cruise ship berths and pleasure boats make for a fascinating waterfront walk, from the splendid new Shetland Museum at Hay’s Dock along the shore past Fort Charlotte, the Small Boat Harbour and the lifeboat station to ‘Da Sooth End’, where 18th century ‘lodberry’ warehouses still stand with their foundations in the sea.
Not many towns host nesting puffins and tysties but if you walk on round the southern headland of the Knab and look over the wall you may see them on the cliffs. Lerwick’s seals are famously tame and often play along the shore just yards from busy traffic. Otters live in the harbour walls but are shyer.
The Town Hall is a fine example of baronial gothic, with beautiful Victorian stained glass windows. Nearby, the 18th century bastions of Fort Charlotte have commanding views over the harbour.
CENTRAL MAINLEND
WHITENESS & WEISDALE, TINGWALL, SCALLOWAY, TRONDRA & BURRA ISLE
Two of the loveliest views in Shetland are from the hilltop lay-bys at the Scord of Sound, Weisdale and at Wormadale, Whiteness. Here you can see at a glance how aeons of erosion have worn down tilted layers of ancient limestones and harder rocks to make long, parallel islands, hills and valleys – now half flooded by the sea. The Weisdale and Tingwall valleys have some of Shetland’s most fertile land, in contrast to the barren slopes above. They’re also sheltered enough for trees to thrive and in Kergord there is a Shetland rarity – some real woodland.
Tingwall is the site of Shetland’s Norse parliament, or ‘ting’, and of the ‘mother church’ of Shetland, dedicated to the island saint, St Magnus. A little to the south, Scalloway (in Old Norse, ‘the bay of the booths’) began in the Middle Ages as a collection of bothies to house and entertain people journeying to the annual ting. By the 17th century the Scottish crown’s representative in Shetland had shifted the centre of government and justice (such as it was) to Scalloway, where the roofless but still imposing castle stands on the shore above modern fishing quays and yacht marinas.
The village styles itself the ‘ancient capital’ of Shetland. Rivalry with the upstart Lerwick over the hill is still fierce, but these days good-humoured. The enchanting little Scalloway Museum recounts this history in more detail but its special focus is the heroic wartime ‘Shetland Bus’ operation, based in the village, which smuggled arms, radios and spies into Nazi-occupied Norway for five perilous years. Scalloway’s connections with Norway are still strong.
Heading south over the bridges to Trondra, Burra Isle and the traditional fishing village of Hamnavoe, we come to some fine beaches and coastal walks. The Meal Beach is a popular summer picnic spot and Banna Minn is a tombolo beach joining West Burra to the wild cliffs of Kettla Ness.
NESTING, LUNNASTING AND DELTING
Shetland’s main roads are smooth and fast, but if you take time for a detour around the side roads, like the ‘Nesting loop’, you’ll discover some of the prettiest scenery in the islands. Catfirth sheltered a First World War seaplane base and is now a favourite bird watching spot, with the chance of seeing an otter at dawn or dusk. The lochs in South Nesting are good places to see swans and other wildfowl. Further on, a winding side road leads to the rocky peninsula of Gletness, with its offlying islets, one of the most tranquil and beautiful corners of Shetland, with a fine view of Bressay and Noss beyond.
The shore road to North Nesting and Dury Voe passes prehistoric house ruins along the hillside. Laxo is a noted angling burn where the occasional sea trout still leaps. Just past the terminal for the Whalsay ferry there’s a rather eccentric private museum, The Cabin. The custodian’s enthusiasm and energy has created a remarkable archive of Shetland’s maritime and wartime history. As at the Scalloway Museum, there’s material about the Norwegian guerrillas who used Lunna House as a base for raids on their Nazi-occupied homeland in early part of the Second World War. Beyond, in Lunna Ness, lies some wild hiking country of special geological interest, including the Stanes of Stofast, a 2000-tonne boulder shattered by the ice. At Lunna Holm there’s usually a big haulout of grey seals.
One of the best places to see porpoises is from Boatsroom Voe, Lunna. It’s hard to believe that one of two major offshore oil pipelines makes its landfall at Lunna, so well has the route been camouflaged. The oil is processed and shipped out at Sullom Voe, Shetland’s largest sea loch.
There’s more good walking on the granite island of Muckle Roe, linked by a bridge to the mainland. The coastal scenery at the Hams o’ Roe is particularly fine – a grand place to spend an afternoon watching grey seals as hundreds of fulmars wheel overhead.