Shetland Isles
Shetland Isles – Visit Scotland
19 hours of midsummer sun
1697 miles of coastline
6000 years of history
138 sandy beaches
1 million seabirds
200,000 puffins
22,000 people
Shetland is awesome, it is a lot larger than you might think and very long and narrow from north to south with a lot of peninsulas and sealochs/fjords cutting deep inland, you are never further than 3 miles from the sea and has a coastline of over 1600 miles!!!
– a lot also depends again on what you are after and the type of weather/visibility we get
the two extremes especially. in summer, when it is a warm calm day is that “haar” / cold seafog comes in – so you could have an absolutely stunning crystal clear blue sky bright day with amazing visibility – the haar settles in and you can barely see for more than 100 metres and all is grey, or it is a rainy, broody, dark cloud day – but often it changes from one to the other within the space of 1 hour.
In June you have 19 hours of daylight and nature is at its best.
Southern mainland:
– some of the highlights are St. Ninian’s isle and beach
– Spiggie beach, the loop aroudn Spiggie loch, the cliffs towards Fitful head
– and of course the “tourist sites, which you could also visit on your own on your free day for example” :
- aking the airport bus south, stopping at the Jarlshof – very similar to Skara Brae on Orkney
- Scatnes beach just opposite the airport is crystal clear and I love it for a walk
- Scatness iron age village & broch
- the airport bus south also stops at Sandwick, from where tourist boats take you to Moussa with the best preserved broch and home to a colony of sea petrels.
* plus of course Sumburgh head and lighthouse
Central mainland, Scalloway and East & West Burra
- On a clear sunny day, the views, the colour of the sea and beaches & beyond over to the islands over to the southern mainland and as far west as Foula
- Tingwall the ancient Viking parliament site
- the southbound views from around Whiteness and its peninsulas can be truly stunning on a clear day
West mainland
- We take a minor scenic detour via picturesque Voe and up the “Shetland Alps” with spectacular views across the fjords across the many sea inlets and over to Muckle Roe
- We have a wee stop at Aith harbour and also for the shops
- I love the drive to Sandness and Melness with the coastal walk overlooking Papa Stour and over to Foula
- around every corner on the journey to Walls, you get new unexpected beautiful impressions, new bays and islands and coastal seaviews to look at, have a wee stop in Walls go to the beach
- If you are into walking you can’t beat the spectacular seacliff walk from Westerwick
Lunnasting
* around every corner, you would like to stop, go for a wander, take in all the views and some photos
Northmavine / North mainland / North Roe
* crossing the narrows at Mavis Grind with the North Sea on the on side and the Atlantic of the other side of the road is the gateway into North mainland
* there is a number of truly stunning sealoch views, incl. Ronas Voe
* stopping for the sea stack and Dore Holm views
* The walk along Eshaness cliffs is a great highlight
* and the bay of Stenness and Tangwick Haa
as the internal ferries are regular, reliable, efficient and very inexpensive
Shetland Isles internal ferries – routemap
* A quick drive around Bressay especially for the Noss views
* Whalsay
is an option
Northern Isles
- Yell
- Fetlar via Yell
- Unst via Yell
Unst
but a must is a journey to iconic Unst, the UK’s most northerly isle with the Hermaness national nature reserve and the seabird cliffs overlooking the Muckle Flugga lighthouse – this is truly to me the highlight as it is so wild, untouched and you see – in early June – thousands of seabirds flying high and low – a truly very moving spectacle
* Norwick beach
* Haroldswick & Unst heritage centre & boat museum
* Baltasound and Uyeasound and beaches, bays, neolithic sites and more
Yell
* Great views all along, Mid-Yell, the Gloup & more
Fetlar
* The garden of Shetland
* beaches, cliffs, peace and tranquility
* wild nature
* a few years ago on the ferry we counted over 20 whales and 3 species
Tips for any free day off in Shetland:
- all sights of Lerwick
- Shetland archives & museum, which are truly amazing
- short 5 mile bus ride to Shetland’s ancient capital & picturesque Scalloway, its harbour, castle & museum
- taking the ferry to Bressay from the pier in the heart of Lerwick – from Bressay you can get another ferry to the seabird cliffs on the island of Noss
- taking the airport bus south, stopping at the Jarlshof – very similar to Skara Brae on Orkney
- Scatnes beach just opposite the airport is crystal clear and I love it for a walk
- Scatness iron age village & broch
- the airport bus south also stops at Sandwick, from where tourist boats take you to Moussa with the best preserved broch and home to a colony of sea petrels.
- Public buses around Shetland are good and they also connect with most of he ferry port arrivals and departures for example to Whalsey
Day 1 of Unicorn Shetland Tour
Shetland has over 100 islands, 16 inhabited, from North (Unst) to South (Sumburgh head on the massively large Shetland mainland – Scotland’s 3rd largest island) is over 80 miles and with so many sea inlets and peninsulas – nowhere is further than 3 miles from the sea the coastline is a staggering 2700 km long. We are closer to Bergen than to Edinburgh and can feel the Norse heritage, culture, language & even the wild rugged coastline with 100’s of fjords/firths/voes/sea inlets & wicks (bays) is very Norwegian in character. / While on our Berwickshire/Borders & East Lothian tours we still feel the historic Northumbrian Anglo-Saxon connections – it is where Scotland feels “the most English” / While on our Southwest Scotland, Galloway, Kintyre & Islay tours we feel all the “Irishness” around us – in Shetland even more so than on Orkney after 600 years under Viking/Norwegian control in 1472 became Scottish again – the Norwegian heritage and connections are still strong.
Shetland Isles – 10th – 13th June 2022 – Unicorn Tours
Shetland – Day 3 – 12th June 2022 – Unicorn Tours
More Unicorn Tours – Shetland 2021 videos
Shetland Isles – visitors’ top 10 – Unicorn Tours
More Unicorn Tours – Shetland 2021 photos
Shetland Isles – visitors’ top 10 – Unicorn Tours
Shetland – www.unicorntours.co.uk
Shetland – July 2019 – www.unicorntours.co.uk
Shetland Isles – Unicorn Tours
Shetland Day 3 – Unicorn Tours
Shetland Day 4 – Unicorn Tours
Shetland Isles – Day 5 ( 2-6May17 ) – Unicorn Tours
Muckle Flugga lighthouse – northernmost point on Shetland/Scotland/UK
