Shetland .... in search of the lonely puffin
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My trip to Shetland started well when a friendly taxi driver from Elgin was passing through Keith and took pity on me waiting for a bus that was not arriving and took me through to Aberdeen. I was going to the ferry (www.northlinkferries.co.uk) for the overnight sailing to Lerwick.
It is such a pity that Aberdeen City Council destroyed any chance of integrating public transport by pushing through the monstrosity of the Union Square shopping centre. We now have a railway station that cannot be reached by public transport, two bus companies that do not share the bus station, or tickets, or routes or maps, and a bus station that is a laughing stock. They also missed the chance to provide a pedestrian link to the ferry terminal.
However, after dodging the traffic to cross the heavily polluted Market Street, I walked into the ferry terminal where I was met by cheerful peace and calm and efficiency. The check-in was rapid, and I walked up the ramp into the ferry to be shown to my cabin.
There are several levels of accommodation, from sitting up to my luxurious cabin, with two beds, tea and coffee making facilities, and my own bathroom. It was booked as an ‘outside’ cabin, so it would have a porthole – but no, it is a full picture window. With your own key card to open the door, it is quite secure, and I was soon up on deck to watch that magical moment when the harbour man throws the rope into the water to set the ferry free.
We slowly made our way through the congestion of ships in the harbour, past dolphins playing by the end of the pier, to set off northwards, with our wake streaming out behind us towards the setting sun. Dinner was superb and not at all expensive, with the cheery crew helpfully sorting you out. There is plenty to do as well, even a cinema. Of course, the North Sea can be bumpy, but I was lucky, flat and calm all the way, so I had a great night’s sleep.
Breakfast is also great and mainland Shetland glided past the windows as we slid into Lerwick harbour. It was busy, with a large passenger ship and two ‘flotels’ – big barges that are accommodation blocks for the offshore workers. You can stay on the ferry until after 9am, but as it was a nice day it was good to get off and explore Lerwick.
The town clusters around the old harbour, today used by pleasure craft, and the terminal for the shuttle ferry to Bressay, the island just 15 minutes away that shelters Lerwick harbour from storms. It is a 10-minute walk from the modern ferry terminal to the town centre, and you pass the forbidding walls of Fort Charlotte, built 1665/7, with large cannons still poking out of the gun ports. The total population of the Shetland Islands is around 22,000, with about 7,000 people living in the capital.
Lerwick’s name derives from Norse for ‘muddy bay’, and here you will find two big supermarkets, many national shops, the Shetland Museum (well worth a visit) and a general feeling of a busy, working town. The tourist office is close to the sea, at the Market Cross. The staff are very helpful and will furnish you with all the information you could ask for, on almost any subject. Turning your back on the sea, there is Commercial Street, with shops selling everything, including many Shetland made items, especially knitwear, and Fair Isle garments. The rest of Britain’s most northerly town, as they proudly claim, spreads away up the hill, with historic narrow steep lanes connecting the two parts. On the top of the hill, or ridge, stand the turrets of the Town Hall.
Lerwick is not the most attractive of seaside towns, as it has grown and developed to support the sea industries, but it is certainly interesting and unique, clean and tidy, and with a purposeful air about it.
On the landward side of town is a small loch with a Broch jutting out into it. This is Clickimin. The Broch is remarkably well preserved, and is one of hundreds dotted around Shetland. These massive circular defensive towers are built entirely of dry stone walls, with concentric corridors between the thick walls of stone, almost a labyrinth, and so difficult to penetrate if you want to attack. This one was built around 6,000 BC. Brochs are widespread in the Northern Isles, and a characteristic of them – fascinating structures to explore.
As I had not taken my car, the tourist office had provided me with bus timetables. This was when I realised how Shetland has very wisely used oil industry money to enhance the standard of living in the islands. There are good bus services. Routes are operated by different local companies, giving employment and revenue to Shetlanders. The buses are all single deckers, and are to a higher standard than we are used to here. The roads are also very good – not one pothole did I see. I took the No 6 down to Sumburgh, the southern tip. All the way there (25 miles from Lerwick) we dodged in and out of the various hamlets, each one with a community centre. There are four swimming pools on Shetland and good public toilets everywhere. The buses all go to and from the Viking bus station in Lerwick which, in stark contrast to Aberdeen, is well designed, comfortable and attractive, as well as being ideal for purpose.
As the bus took me to Sumburgh, I was struck by the wide open spaces – you can always see for a long distance. The wide valleys, devoid of trees or bushes, with lochans (over 365, most are fishable) and the sea create a feeling of dimension and freedom.
You can see the airport from miles off, so a chat to the driver and he stopped the bus on a bend and pointed me in the direction of the Sumburgh Head lighthouse (Shetland’s first), which is also a bird sanctuary. Following the path, ever upwards, takes you to the cliff and promontory dominated by the modernised lighthouse complex. This is where the puffins can be found. They arrive in April and stay through to July, or so I was told.
The tourist office lady said that the birds were a bit latchy this year, but a tourist had told her that they had seen one puffin. The wind had got up and I minded the bus driver’s warning not to fall off the cliffs as I peered this way and that to spot the lonely puffin, but he or she was being very coy – no sight of it at all. I bagged loads of photos of fulmars wheeling and posing with wings outstretched as they hung on the updraughts, black back gulls, the odd eider and cormorant – but no Puffins.
There is Jarlshof to see here, a village of 4,000-year-old wheel-shaped houses that were only discovered 100 years ago when a violent storm uncovered them. There are many pathways well signposted in Shetland, so following one of these, over well maintained styles over the dry stone walls, brought me back to another Broch, a deserted fine sandy beach, and the bus back towards Lerwick.
Another bus run took me over to Scalloway. This used to be the capital of the islands, but in the 19th century when Lerwick developed the fishing industry, the capital was moved to there. In Scalloway there is still an impressive Town Hall, plus the large ruins of a castle that was built around 1600. It is only a small town, with a population of a little over 1,000 people, with the houses around the harbour (backed by the hill where the last witches to be burnt in Shetland met their fate). Here there was another large ‘flotel’ and a large ship tied up to the pier. More evidence of the oil industry, but little evidence that it is having any effect on Scalloway.
There is a modern museum here, worth a visit, and they have the key to the castle if you want to visit it. Scalloway was the base in World War II for the ‘Shetland Bus’, a system of small boats that shuttled between here and Norway carrying supplies and people for the resistance against the Nazis.
Shetland is famous for having no trees – but there is plenty of peat still being dug for fuel – so there were trees at one time. It is believed that all the trees were used for timber or fuel and were gone by 3,000 years ago. This has left the wide open spaces sweeping into the distance as you travel around. The other islands (there are over 100, with just 15 of them inhabited) are well worth visiting, each one with its own special character. There are many inter-island boats, as well as airplanes.
Shetland is a great destination for outdoor lovers, especially bird watchers (and I am sure that there are puffins) and, of course, the world famous Shetland ponies can be seen anywhere. There are also three golf courses, loch and sea fishing, great walking, and the many ancient remains, showing that people have lived here for many thousands of years. Shetland is popular with cruise ships, and for those wishing to see the Northern Lights. There is not much light pollution here.
For an active family holiday, you would be hard put to beat it – and it is not too far to go either, as they say themselves "far is not so far".
Returning to Aberdeen on the ferry, which I thoroughly enjoyed, it was a bit of a jolt to get back to the pollution congestion and noise of Market Street, and to fathom a way through the ghastly shopping centre to the buses. Shetland is definitely on my list for another visit.
For more information, visit their very efficient tourist office at www.shetland.org
