Safe Return Doubtful

I hadn’t expected much, but the last trek of this course on Shetland, the Ness of Sound, was excellent. The car park I had used is only half a mile from Lerwick town and yet completely quiet, and though it attracts a few walkers and joggers in the daytime, there…

  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…

  Sumburgh Head and its lighthouse is at the southernmost tip of Shetland’s Mainland island. It is the most popular tourist destination outside of Lerwick, though today, in the height of the summer season, and on a relatively warm and sunny day (16C) it had about 50 people there while…

  Very contrasting weather here in the last few days, with two warm sunny and extremely calm days bookending two days of strong wind. The wind was apparently caused by the huge storm affecting Norway at present, named as Hans. This was 50 plus hours of 45 miles per hour…

  The only visitors I had during my three days at Kirkabister were the residents of the house on the hill, who said hello a few times, and as I have become accustomed to, asked me if I needed anything. Each day also two guys offering ‘coasteering’ came with their…

  Lunna will stick in my memory for a long time, chiefly due to the hospitality of its residents, all six of them, in just three houses.   When we arrived we went as far as the road goes, to the peninsula’s northwest side, and a farm called Outrabister. We…

  40 days up in Shetland and I’ve been on an unintended healthier diet. That’s because I’m conserving gas. There are no LPG pumps in Shetland, so what I came up here with needs to last me until I’m back on the Scottish mainland. I do have a camping stove…

  I’ve just spent a pleasant few days at Uyeasound, a naturally sheltered harbour on the south east coast of Unst. The van has been parked up on the pier, just opposite a French cafe and an old shop, but the shop closed down in 1678.   The ruin of…