Safe Return Doubtful

Sand Voe was recommended to me as a good starting point for the trek up to Fethaland, which though it may sound like a pillow outlet, is actually a stark and beautiful part of the Shetland coastline. The usual starting place for the hike is just over the hill at Isbister, but the parking there is on a significant gradient, and it is also adjacent to a house. Both evenings I was at Sand Voe though, the evenings were warm and humid, with almost no wind, and that made the flies a pest.

The first afternoon I was there the sun was shining, and I delayed a swim for too long, as the rain came in and it was less appealing.

Looking down from a track above the beach, another ‘spot-the-van’ pic..

And out towards the ocean.. below is a property being renovated, with quite an incredible situation..

Late on my first night there, the Finding Fins, orca-hunters, arrived. They have good knowledge of the the islands and I was able to pick up a few tips. The weather has changed it’s pattern of being dry to showers, though few today, they were quite welcome in the humidity.

It’s a relatively easy trek up to the Isle of Fethaland, which is an old haaf, or deep-sea, fishing station. The settlement there dates back to prehistoric times, but more recently, in the late 1800s, it boasted 60 boats, with seasonal workers living in 36 lodges, and was the biggest in Shetland. Fish were cured and dried on the beach before being shipped onwards. In the early 1900s more modern methods of production in Brae and Lerwick meant an end to the operation.

Beyond the beaches is the Point of Fethaland, across a narrow spit of shale, to what is known as the Isle of Fethaland, and its lighthouse perched on its hill, a more modern lighthouse than any Stevenson, hence no accommodation.

Though calm back at Sand Voe, here at the mainland isle’s most northerly point, the wind was strong. It’s quite exposed up at the lighthouse also, with 30 metre cliffs to the west, and only slightly shorter ones to the east. I’m never good in such places, and even Roja, who is usually very assured, didn’t want to go too close to the edge in this wind.

There was a group of 8 other walkers, who had banded together and hired a vehicle from their hotel in Lerwick to get to some of the hikes more difficult to get to by bus. I chatted with them as we took lunch under a sheltered rocky edge. One guy was from Merseyside originally, as I am, and now lived in Newtonmore, by chance, as had the Scottish cricket fan, Laurie, that I met a couple of days ago, who had owned the backpackers hostel in Newtonmore for the last twenty years. Though travelling quite separately, the two guys lived just four houses apart.

Another of the group was from Sellafield, also Lake District, though on the absolute opposite side to me.

A longer spell of rain had been forecast, but it didn’t get going until I was back at the van. It passed over quickly and cleared in the evening, but the forecast is more like one would expect from an island in the North Atlantic in the next few days..