A week on Shetland
29th October 2024
I had been keeping an eye on the weather for a couple of weeks before I was due to head up to Shetland for six nights. The other consideration uppermost in my mind was that flight versus ferry. The flight was more expensive of course, but the thought of three hours on the train to Aberdeen, followed by a further eleven hours at sea filled me with mounting horror!
So, it was on a wet morning in August that I boarded the Loganair flight to Sumburgh, and was delighted to discover that a complimentary cup of tea and Caramel Wafer was on the agenda. I felt very positive about the day, and it only got better as we touched down ahead of schedule on Britain’s most northerly archipelago. Beig such a small plane, we were quickly disgorged onto the tarmac and twenty minutes later I was in my hire car heading north to Lerwick. I had arranged to meet two friends at a café there, and then we would head north west to Sandness, where we were renting a cottage at the beach for the week.
From distant memories of work visits up here I recalled that the roads were excellent – many had been improved through oil revenue – and relatively tourist free. I’m guessing that it must be extremely expensive to get a camper van on the ferry. One of the friends I was meeting lives on the mainland of Shetland, very close to where we were staying, and in fact is the headteacher at his old primary school in Sandness, so obvious reasons he was designated the excursions planner.
The cottage was in a fantastic location, literally ten seconds walk from the beach, and after we arrived took a stroll along the sands. After dinner and a couple of drams, we decided to take a trip to the island of Muckle Roe the next day, as many Shetlanders regard this circuit to be the finest in the the islands. The forecast was looking good, and we decided to do the walk taking in the lighthouse in the south of the island from Little Ayre. We would pass Muckle Ayre, a secluded red beach, and the Burki Skerries, heading past Muckle Water and Lairds Loch before reaching the coast at South Ham, and following a track back to our starting point. The name Muckle Roe comes from the Old Norse ‘raudoy mikla’, meaning ‘big red isle’. This is because the island is made of red rock from a 350 million-year-old extinct volcano. This red granite is known as granophyre, and its red hue comes from high levels of potassium feldspar. This rock is responsible for the island’s striking coastal features because it resists erosion, and we could sea the water pounding the rocks below the lighthouse, where we stopped for our tea and sandwiches. Sunbathing against a warm slab of granite was heaven!
The following day dawned bright and sunny again, and we took advantage of the weather for a short leg-stretcher along the coast to our friend’s house at Bousta. It was a delightful walk along a grassy clifftop, passing over a sandy beach at Bay of Garth. Beautiful, but unfortunately pretty inaccessible without some abseiling skills. Still, as I peered over the edge with my camera, I took one of my favourite shots of the trip. Hard to believe that the white sands and aqua waters weren’t on some tropical island.
Every day was packed with activity, so it was south again the next morning to pick up some messages in Lerwick and visit St. Ninian’s isle which is connected by the largest tombolo in the UK on the south-western coast of the Mainland. The island has ecclesiastical connections, which may, like others in the Northern Isles, Hebrides and Faroes have connections to the Culdees or Papar (Irish monks who took up solitary residence). However, the island's history is far older than Christianity, and Neolithic graves have been found within the walls of the chapel. In 1958, an excavation found a hoard of 8th century silver in the chapel grounds under a stone slab in a wooden box, which caused a renewed archaeological interest in the island. It was suspected to have been buried to hide it from, or stolen in, a Viking raid. Fortunately, when we crossed the sand that day, there was nothing as exciting going on. Just some folk paddling in the water, and somebody flying a kite. We then headed further south to meet the puffins at Sumburgh Head where cliffs meet the North Sea, while the historic lighthouse watches out from the top of the cliffs. During the summer, Sumburgh Head comes alive with the spectacle of thousands of seabirds, including Puffins, Fulmars, Guillemots and Shags, and I was quite surprised at how nonchalant the puffins were as people pointed cameras and phones at them. They looked like they’d seen it all before.
Given the fact that the weather was so good, it was fitting that our final two days on the islands were to be spent kayaking around the NW coast, exploring the numerous caves and sea stacks. I have to confess at this point to never really having kayaked before, so I was slightly nervous about tipping myself out in the cold water. But I needn’t have worried. Apparently, these sea kayaks had a buoyancy aid in them, so as long as I wasn’t too hopeless, I should be able to manoeuvre myself through the water. During the first session, we went out for about three hours, circling around rock stacks, whilst nosy grey seals kept a quizzical eye on us. On our last day, we ventured out a bit further from the Voe of Dale into Whal Geo, and its sea cave. A Geo is an inlet, a gully or a narrow and deep cleft in the face of a cliff, and are common on the coastline of Shetland and Orkney. It was quite a serene experience paddling through the cave with the sun slanting in on the walls. The return journey was slightly less so, battling into incoming tide with a side wind for good measure. At one point I really felt that I was just paddling to stay still, but as we rounded the headland, the wind dropped, and we were able to drift back in on the tide. Once we secured the kayaks back onto the roof of the van we sat and enjoyed the afternoon sun on the shore. A fantastic end to an unforgettable trip.
So, it was on a wet morning in August that I boarded the Loganair flight to Sumburgh, and was delighted to discover that a complimentary cup of tea and Caramel Wafer was on the agenda. I felt very positive about the day, and it only got better as we touched down ahead of schedule on Britain’s most northerly archipelago. Beig such a small plane, we were quickly disgorged onto the tarmac and twenty minutes later I was in my hire car heading north to Lerwick. I had arranged to meet two friends at a café there, and then we would head north west to Sandness, where we were renting a cottage at the beach for the week.
From distant memories of work visits up here I recalled that the roads were excellent – many had been improved through oil revenue – and relatively tourist free. I’m guessing that it must be extremely expensive to get a camper van on the ferry. One of the friends I was meeting lives on the mainland of Shetland, very close to where we were staying, and in fact is the headteacher at his old primary school in Sandness, so obvious reasons he was designated the excursions planner.
The cottage was in a fantastic location, literally ten seconds walk from the beach, and after we arrived took a stroll along the sands. After dinner and a couple of drams, we decided to take a trip to the island of Muckle Roe the next day, as many Shetlanders regard this circuit to be the finest in the the islands. The forecast was looking good, and we decided to do the walk taking in the lighthouse in the south of the island from Little Ayre. We would pass Muckle Ayre, a secluded red beach, and the Burki Skerries, heading past Muckle Water and Lairds Loch before reaching the coast at South Ham, and following a track back to our starting point. The name Muckle Roe comes from the Old Norse ‘raudoy mikla’, meaning ‘big red isle’. This is because the island is made of red rock from a 350 million-year-old extinct volcano. This red granite is known as granophyre, and its red hue comes from high levels of potassium feldspar. This rock is responsible for the island’s striking coastal features because it resists erosion, and we could sea the water pounding the rocks below the lighthouse, where we stopped for our tea and sandwiches. Sunbathing against a warm slab of granite was heaven!
The following day dawned bright and sunny again, and we took advantage of the weather for a short leg-stretcher along the coast to our friend’s house at Bousta. It was a delightful walk along a grassy clifftop, passing over a sandy beach at Bay of Garth. Beautiful, but unfortunately pretty inaccessible without some abseiling skills. Still, as I peered over the edge with my camera, I took one of my favourite shots of the trip. Hard to believe that the white sands and aqua waters weren’t on some tropical island.
Every day was packed with activity, so it was south again the next morning to pick up some messages in Lerwick and visit St. Ninian’s isle which is connected by the largest tombolo in the UK on the south-western coast of the Mainland. The island has ecclesiastical connections, which may, like others in the Northern Isles, Hebrides and Faroes have connections to the Culdees or Papar (Irish monks who took up solitary residence). However, the island's history is far older than Christianity, and Neolithic graves have been found within the walls of the chapel. In 1958, an excavation found a hoard of 8th century silver in the chapel grounds under a stone slab in a wooden box, which caused a renewed archaeological interest in the island. It was suspected to have been buried to hide it from, or stolen in, a Viking raid. Fortunately, when we crossed the sand that day, there was nothing as exciting going on. Just some folk paddling in the water, and somebody flying a kite. We then headed further south to meet the puffins at Sumburgh Head where cliffs meet the North Sea, while the historic lighthouse watches out from the top of the cliffs. During the summer, Sumburgh Head comes alive with the spectacle of thousands of seabirds, including Puffins, Fulmars, Guillemots and Shags, and I was quite surprised at how nonchalant the puffins were as people pointed cameras and phones at them. They looked like they’d seen it all before.
Given the fact that the weather was so good, it was fitting that our final two days on the islands were to be spent kayaking around the NW coast, exploring the numerous caves and sea stacks. I have to confess at this point to never really having kayaked before, so I was slightly nervous about tipping myself out in the cold water. But I needn’t have worried. Apparently, these sea kayaks had a buoyancy aid in them, so as long as I wasn’t too hopeless, I should be able to manoeuvre myself through the water. During the first session, we went out for about three hours, circling around rock stacks, whilst nosy grey seals kept a quizzical eye on us. On our last day, we ventured out a bit further from the Voe of Dale into Whal Geo, and its sea cave. A Geo is an inlet, a gully or a narrow and deep cleft in the face of a cliff, and are common on the coastline of Shetland and Orkney. It was quite a serene experience paddling through the cave with the sun slanting in on the walls. The return journey was slightly less so, battling into incoming tide with a side wind for good measure. At one point I really felt that I was just paddling to stay still, but as we rounded the headland, the wind dropped, and we were able to drift back in on the tide. Once we secured the kayaks back onto the roof of the van we sat and enjoyed the afternoon sun on the shore. A fantastic end to an unforgettable trip.