Safe Return Doubtful

I docked at Scalloway on my bicycle trip in 2005 coming off the boat that used to call into Shetland on route Iceland – Faroes – Shetland – Denmark. It stopped calling in in 2008. I remember it being windy, but not a lot else. It’s the main reason I wrote a blog these days, to jar my memory in the future.

Scalloway is Shetland’s second town in size, but very different in appearance to Lerwick. Lerwick buildings are very grey, just slightly different shades of it. Scalloway’s buildings are in bright pastel colours, a little like Tobermory on Mull. It is also the home to Shetland’s University, which specialises in engineering for off-shore wind farms, and fishing. At this time of year though, especially at weekends, the buildings and car parks are all empty, and made an excellent place to stop, close to the sea, and with the weather fine all weekend, quite a bit of sea traffic coming and going from the harbour.

The University also runs a Tourism course, part of which is catering, and two nights a week has a restaurant run by students in the main building. It is fine dining, and though not quite Noma, it has a good reputation, and the prices are high.

The hundred metres or so that make up the Main Street have a few shops, two hotel bars and a cafe. At the weekends the cafe opens late, and on the Friday Roja and I walked down for a beer and a takeaway fish and chips. Despite all this there still are very few visitors. The season is very short, finishing in effect this week when the schools return.

Just beyond the University buildings is a well-defined path to the lighthouse on the headland of the Ness of Westernshore. After that the track, such as it is, continues around the rocky shore to the north to the community of Burwick, about two more miles. These sort of tracks right next to the coast, basically just sheep trods, are typical of Shetland, and always provide plenty of interest, with the variety of sea birds, seals, otters, and just the chance there may be a whale close. At Burwick there is a rough track for 4WD that climbs steeply inland and back south to Scalloway.

We did this hike twice, firstly clockwise, but then more adventurously, the opposite direction, but across the rough moorland on the ridge of the hills, at about 100 metres above sea level.

All this was sandwiched around the rugby on Saturday, and a couple of visits into town.

On Sunday afternoon we left Scalloway, aware that with the schools returning this coming week the University also is likely to get busier. It’s a great place to stop up in the van in the height of the holiday, but not otherwise.

We drove the fifteen minutes back to Lerwick and attended to a few chores, before settling at the car park for the Ness of Sound trail, about a mile south of town.