The Rest of Shetland

Tuesday we headed to the northern islands of Yell and Unst. The goal was for me to do a walk that would enable me to see the island of Muckle Flugga, the northern most point in the UK. Unfortunately a sea mist made the walk pointless. But we still saw so much stunning scenery, probably the best we've seen so far. It doesn't photograph well, the three dimensionality and texture of it just doesn't show through.

Our first stop was at Victoria's Vintage Tea Room on Unst, where Dimity had had a marvellous Victoria Sponge Cake five years ago. It was still a great morning tea spot.

Bakewell cake and their deluxe hot chocolate. The shortbread was amazing.

The northern most house in the UK.

The sea mist.

We accidentally found the launching site for Europe' first vertical launch space shuttle.

The northern most church in the UK.

A reconstructed Viking ship and longhouse.

Bobby's bus shelter, this year's theme is a leap year. 

 A Viking standing stone.

Peat bagged and ready for sale, with some drying in front.

Wednesday we headed to the north west of the main island.

Mavis Grind, where you the Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea are a 100 yards apart.

The concrete blocks on the shore are WW2 tank blockers, Shetland was more involved in WW2 than I expected. 

A man is very gradually restoring a plane that crashed on landing in Shetland.

The childhood home of the inventor of the smallpox vaccine, Johnie Notions.

View from the lighthouse.

Lots of interesting rock formations and sea stacks in the ocean.

The Tangwick Haa Museum was quite interesting. In the 1950's a 250 year old body was found by some local men when digging for peat. His garments were quite well presented, so local women knitted copies of them. One piece was even knitted before the police arrived to collect the body.

Thursday was about exploring Lerwick, including a long walk and some Shetland wool purchases. 

The Lodberries aka Jimmy Perez's house in the Shetland TV series.

Thursday night was traditional music night at The Douglas Arms. It started as three men playing and the group kept growing. It was wonderful to see teenagers joining in and lots of tourists and locals gradually filling up the lounge. I also got to try the local gin, which was very good.

Friday was a very wet day, with a quick trip to Scalloway to see the castle of the original castle and then like many others a visit to the Shetland Textiles Museum. 

A knitting week project from a Wool Week a few years ago, the bunting is now 67 metres long. I added four rows. 

This woman was incredibly knowledgeable about the history of knitting in Shetland, I learnt so much from her. It was also interesting to see her demonstrate and explain about knitting with a belt. She was a quick knitter but said her mother was much faster, as she knitted at a time when knitting was a part of a family's income. 

Knitted tea bags!

To Shetland

On Saturday we flew to Shetland, a collection of islands halfway between Norway and Scotland. It is stunning! 

As soon as we picked up our rental car we headed to Sumburgh Lighthouse to look for puffins but there were only eight left. They fly to the Bay of Biscay for the winter as soon as the babies are big enough to fly.  

Driving the main road to the capital, Lerwick involves driving over the runway from the airport. There are guards on each end to stop all the cars when needed. 

After settling into our accommodation I walked down to the Broch of Clickimin. I love that a building dating back to 1000BC is between where we're staying and Tesco. 

Sunday morning we explored the west of the main island, lots of very interesting and beautiful scenery. 

Sunday afternoon we took the ferry over to the island of Bressay, then drove across the island to the ferry for the island of Noss. It was the smallest ferry I've ever been on, going over I was the only person on it. I had a lovely walk around the island, even seeing the pure Shetland sheep being shorn.

Can you spot the seal?

This morning we headed south, starting at the amazing Jarlshoff Broch. It was really interesting to see and hear how the buildings had changed with the different communities inhabiting the area over the last 4000 years. And that it had all been part of a farm until a big storm a hundred years ago uncovered it and eventually the farmer gave it to the government to care for.

St Ninian's Isle, it was very windy and about to rain so we decided against walking across:

The Croft Museum was quite interesting, though I forgot to take a photo of the outside of the traditionally roofed croft house. They even had a peat fire burning. 

We then pottered around trying to find a couple of small wool suppliers, eventually finding one open with yarn from sheep that have been bred at the same croft for six generations. 

We then experienced some true Shetland weather with lots of rain and wind.