Safe Return Doubtful

  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…

    I spent five days on Fetlar in the end, the van not moving from its wonderful setting just above he beach, and in that time probably met most of the islanders. Each day I wandered past the cafe, which acts as a shop, post office, and information centre…

  The ferry over to Fetlar takes half an hour. They run twice a day from Unst, and also from Yell at this time of year. There was one other car on the boat I was on, a family going over just for the day. With a big smile, the…

  I was hesitant to walk the bit of coast south of Norwick, enticingly called the Horns of Hagmark, as it’s summit, a trigg point at 167 metres, is right on the edge of the cliff. But it was a much calmer day today, and the walk up over moorland…

The RAF have had a military presence at Saxa Vord, on the opposite side of the inlet or voe, to Hermaness, since the Second World War, with a Radar Station on the hill, symbolised by its radar tracking huge golf ball, similar to Great Dunn Fell. It closed in 2006…

  Just over 600 people live on Unst though as many tourists will be around in the summer months. Few of those tourists stay on the island though. Now, in Unst Fest week, most visitors are here for the day from Brae or Lerwick.   Hermaness is the destination of…