My "Am visiting Shetland and Orkney soon" was met with a universal, “...but why?”
Not only that, I was forewarned about the lack of things to see and do and the cloudy, cold, and extremely windy conditions that lay in store. Having regularly braved all these elements in Edinburgh for the last three years, I asked myself “Why not?” And I subjected Dad to it too.
Shetland is a group of over 100 isles (of which only about 15 are inhabited). Given its unique location (equidistant from Norway and Scotland), these islands have an interesting history. In the 15th Century (when Shetland was part of Norway), the islands were pawned to Scotland with the caveat that the Norwegians retained the right to redeem them back whenever they felt like. So far the Norwegians haven't redeemed them (and seeing the number of Fish & Chips shops they probably never will).
The islands are an interesting mix of Scottishness and Norwegianness - names of most of the places are derived from old Norse (e.g. Shetland’s old Norse name is Hjaltland) and Scandinavian / Viking influence is visible just about everywhere (apart from the unexplainable craze for football which definitely comes from Scotland!).
The biggest island of the Shetlands is called ‘Mainland’ and its ‘capital’ (if that is what a town with a population of around 8k can be called) is Lerwick (old Norse: muddy bay). I expected it to be like any other port / fishing village – dirty and smelly and full of rough sailor types with tattoos of anchors and rudders and wheels. Fortunately, Lerwick was a very pleasant, neat, clean, and compact town. The main thoroughfare, Commercial Street, did not have the obligatory Marks and Spencer, Boots, and Carphone Warehouse (which make all British cities, towns, and villages look like carbon copies of each other). Instead Commercial Street had narrow steep lanes (called Klosses and Lons) which gave the town a very very unique feel. The most interesting bits were the 'lodberries' where boats can be bought directly near the street for loading / unloading (a bit like Venezia). Shetland has a number of Brochs which are Iron Age round towers – what they were built for still seems to be unclear to historians - either they were military structures or were simply big homes. The most famous of these are the Broch of Mousa and the one at Lerwick (Clickimin Broch).
However, the best thing about Lerwick turned out to be the Indian restaurant there (ok ok, that is a very Indo-centric view. The restaurant was Bangladeshi anyways. Not that anyone could tell). It was a frightfully simple affair but the food was far better than any of the ‘award-winning’ Indian restaurants I’ve eaten in in the UK. Good food does travel far.
Shetlandian wildlife is quite diverse - birds from Europe, Scandinavia, and occasionally even from across the Atlantic can be found here. Unfortunately, we had just missed the Puffin season when thousands and thousands of these birds (with their bright beaks) can be seen on the shores and cliffs. We were, however, able to regularly spot seals and otters.
Dramatic cliffs, sea stacks, beaches, and hills make a very compelling landscape on the Shetlands. Because of high winds very few trees survive so the islands are virtually tree-less. Spotting a tree can be played as a game if you need to kill time. And it is also said that if someone switched off the winds Shetlanders would just topple over.
The western-most bit of ‘mainland’ Shetland is Eshaness from where one gets magnificent views of the Atlantic and the nothingness beyond - fortunately one couldn’t do a Sarah Palin and see America/Canada from there. The lighthouse at Eshaness is extremely dramatic – at the top of a cliff with choppy seas below. This light-house, like most in Scotland, was built by the Stevenson family who specialised in building lighthouses (until a certain Robert Louis made the family famous for something else!).
Travel between the isles is (naturally) by ferries and ferry timetables are, to say the least, extremely complicated. This was compounded by the fact that when we were travelling the times had just moved onto the ‘winter’ timetable and no one was sure if the timetable had moved or was about to move. In this confusion, our best adventure was saved for our last day when we decided to visit the island of Unst which is two islands north of ‘mainland’ Shetland. Anyone who has tried to sightsee UK by public transport will tell you of the impossibility (and foolhardiness) of doing so - it took us 6 bus journeys and 4 ferry journeys to get to Unst and back (all in one day!). Unst is UK’s northernmost inhabited island and almost everything there has a ‘UK’s Northern-most ___’ sign on it. The most famous landmark of Unst is a bus-stop called ‘Bobby’s bus stop’ that is thoughtfully furnished by the neighbours with a sofa, curtains, books, computer, TV etc. The irony of it all is that buses hardly ever run on Unst (welcome to the UK!).
Our next stop was the Orkney Islands which are much closer to mainland Scotland – this group of 70 Islands, of which 17 are inhabited, are only 7 miles (at their closest point) from Northern Scotland. It is said that Shetlanders are fisherman with crofts (small farms) and Orcadians are Farmers with boats. Whilst Shetland had a more dramatic scenery, the Orkney landscape is more gentle as the islands are flatter (don't ask me about tectonic plates etc). But this flatness is more than made up by the presence of numerous very well-preserved Iron Age burial sites and houses. Apart from these sites, there a number of stone circles and standing stones, the most famous being ‘Ring of Brodgar’ which was believed to have been put up between 2,500 and 2,000 BC. No one knows why these were set up but they’re believed to have been ritualistic in nature. Let your imagination run wild about what sort of rituals were carried out there. However, the pièce de résistance of the Orkney stone age sites is Skara Brae which has extremely well-preserved neolithic houses where one can see 'furniture' and jewellery, ritual objects, and tools. A window indeed into a world long gone by.
Whilst on Shetland, we were reasonably lucky with the weather – it was cloudy most of the days but didn’t rain (that is ‘reasonably’ lucky in Scottish terms). However, we were subjected to the worst of Scottish weather on one of days on Orkney when it rained and rained and rained. Thankfully the Sun God (notice the capital letters. Can’t make Him/Her angry) smiled on us the next couple of days.
Can travels in Scotland be complete without a visit to the friendly neighbourhood Distillery. In Orkney's case it was the Highland Park Distillery – supposedly the Northernmost distillery (that damn adjective again!) in Scotland. According to Michael Jackson (a Scotch expert, not to be confused with Paris’ late father), this is 'the greatest all-rounder in the world of malt whisky'. Since it was the start of the off-tourist season, Dad and I were the only ones on the ‘tour’ and I was at my irritating best with lots of questions. Though I still can’t figure out the difference between barley and malt!
That was the last thing we did on our Island-trip before heading back to Edinburgh which was comparatively sunny (not an adjective used to describe the ‘burgh).
