Friday 7th June - this morning we disembarked from the Hjaltland ferry after a fairly rough overnight crossing from Orkney. We'd left the campsite there at about 10pm, queued on the port for an hour and a half and then finally set sail about midnight. We'd booked a cabin so we both slept fitfully for a couple of hours but then the rolling of the ship on the big waves woke us and any more sleep 😴 was banished!
We docked in Lerwick at 7am and then it was only a few miles to go to our lovely Loch facing campsite near Scalloway that will be home for the next 10 days. We quickly settled in and met Janet (the owner) and then breakfast was a feast of croissants and strawberry jam! After that John had another little go at fixing our water system - but to no avail - so he gave it up as a bad job and we went for a wander in the narrow streets of Lerwick, then lunch and then shopping.
Saturday 8th June - The weather forecast for today was awful 😳! Really strong winds and heavy rain all day 🌧 🌧 🌧 so as we'll be here for 10 days we decided to devote today to planning what we want to see and do, pottering about with little jobs and finding out a bit more about Shetland and its topography.
Shetland is described as a archipelago of a hundred scattered islands at the crossroads of the North Sea and the Atlantic ocean and it is one of the remotest parts of Britain. It has approximately 1679 miles of coastline much of which has been sculptured by the rough seas that surround it, and apparently it takes about 2 hours to drive from north to south. Therefore, for this visit we're mainly going to concentrate on making sure we see the best bits of the Mainland, and to that end John has been pouring over the guide books and 'plotting' our outings.
Our campsite lies in the Tingwall Valley and we're overlooking Loch Asta and more distantly the much larger Tingwall Loch. Both have nesting swans and Shetland ponies grazing in the nearby fields so our new home is quite idyllic, but after being in all day today we can't wait to get out and explore - but that will be tomorrow's story 😀.
Sunday 9th June - Today our plan was a mixture of walking and touring in the North East corner of Shetland. We set off along the single track road that runs (from just outside our campsite) along the Tingwall Valley passing by the Lochs Asta and Tingwall as we went. Along our way we passed through tiny villages such as Gott and Laxfirth and they almost felt Norwegian in nature because many of the houses were of wooden construction. As we continued the narrow single track road wound itself around numerous North Sea inlets that we at home may have called estuaries but here there are multiple names for them such as straits, sounds, firths, sea lochs or just plain inlets. Additionally, there were also lots of land locked lochs of varying sizes so for most of our 84 mile journey we could see water in which ever direction we looked 😀.
Our narrow road continued over hilly moorland for many miles but there was hardly any other traffic and the only danger was the odd suicidal sheep or lamb that attempted to jump into our cars path. The scraggy sheep roamed freely and in one place there were also turkeys grubbing about on the heavily harvested peat moorland.
Our first brief stop was at Laxo from where we watched the ferry chugging back from the island of Whalsay, and from there we headed on to the start point for our first walk which was to be to the Ness of Lunna - but we didn't quite make it that far! Almost from the get go the terrain was very rocky with bouncy wet peat bog underfoot and screeching oyster catchers and ringed plovers overhead. I think we must have been near their nests as they flapped and squarked at us in quite an aggressive manner.
However, once we'd passed there danger zone we were able to admire the wonderful rocky coastal views as well as the fauna that included wild flowers of yellow and blue as well as very prolific bog cotton. The only thing that we could think of that was missing was any semblance of a path - we just had to make our way across the moor battling against the wild wind and that was why we never quite made it to our destination.
Our next target was the settlement of Mossbank and along the way we passed by the island of Fora Ness that was linked to the Mainland by a causeway, and then once we'd settled for lunch we found ourselves overlooking the islands of Samphrey, Biggar (which was quite little) and Yell.
Next came a quick look at the Sullom Voe Oil Terminal and then it was on to Brae where we stopped for supplies at their well stocked Coop. Forwards and onwards we continued along roads that were just like a ribbon of black asphalt with occasional bulges for passing places as we headed over more moorland until we reached the parking place to visit the peat stained Burn of Lunklet with its waterfall. This required another walk over another bouncy peat path that eventually led us up to the waterfall and another wild moorland vista.
Then once back in the car we discovered The Cake Fridge at Bixter which was loaded with lots of sweet goodies and which relied on an honesty box for payment - and as you'd imagine we couldn't resist the orange tiffin that was on offer.
Our last stop was at a view point that overlooked Kalliness and the Hill of Hellister. Near the churchyard at the Sound are the foundations of the Aamos Kirk that has a mysterious reputation. According to local lore when it was being built the builders would use up all of the stone that was available by the time they finished work for the day but the next morning there was always a fresh supply and the story goes that passers-by often saw one more workman than the builders knew about! It's also said that sick people are often cured there but we didn't get near enough to test that theory out.
From there it was just another 14 miles 'home' to a very welcome cuppa - but we were good and saved the tiffin for tomorrow.
Monday 10th June - If we thought we'd seen the best of the UKs coastline we were very much mistaken cos today's outing would definitely have to have that prize 😀. The day started with more rain and the strong winds hadn't abated but we weren't deterred and by the time we got to our destination which was Eshaness at the top of the North West segment of Shetland the rain had stopped. Eshaness is where the Volcano 🌋 Trail can be found and its so called because it has a section that cuts through the flank of a volcano that existed there back in the dark depths of time. This was evidenced by the multiple layers of black basalt volcanic rock and ash with lava flows that were layered with other rock types.
We started our walk near the windswept Eshaness Lighthouse and we hadn't got far to go until we came to Calders Geo which is a deep gouge that reaches 200 metres inland with the powerful Atlantic waves racing in and crashing up its walls. The info boards told us that it probably used to be a cave before it's roof caved in.
We continued along the cliff top for a couple of miles and all along the way the way we were gasping, not so much from the exertion but more from the sights we were seeing and there is just no way photos could do its magnificence justice - but we did try!
Once back in the car we ate our picnic while watching the mighty waves of the Atlantic crashing up the cliffs and with all that power there really is no wonder that the formations that we saw today are constantly being changed.
Then as we started to leave the lighthouse area we were forced to stop again as more formations came into sight! The one below is said to resemble a drinking horse 🐎 and then in the distance we could see pinnacles that could maybe be said to be Shetlands answer to the Needles near the Isle of Wight!
On our way home we stopped of at Mavis Grind where a narrow isthmus joins the North Mavine peninsula to the rest of the Shetland Mainland. The isthmus is just 33 metres wide at its narrowest point which probably makes it the shortest 'Coast to Coast' in the world, with The Atlantic Ocean on one side to The North Sea on the other.
Tuesday 11th June - Well, Shetland really is a place that keeps on giving and I think I can best describe today's outing with 3 WOWs. We left the campsite and headed about 25 miles to Muckle Roe on the North West Side of the Mainland. Our plan was to do a 6 mile walk to South and North Ham, first up an inland track and then later down the seaward side to make a circular hike. So the first WOW was about the weather - it stayed very windy but no rain and we did see peeks of sunshine.
The second WOW was for more magnificent views of rugged coastline which included more sea stacks and arches, colossal ravines and towering red granite cliffs. And the 3rd WOW - well that would have to be for the terrain that we had to cover in the 2nd half of our walk😱.
The first part of our walk was relaxed and easy as we followed a stony track over heather clad moorland and after about 3 miles we could see our first view point which was South Ham. The enclosed bay was a harbour in the 19th century and it was used to by Smacks (small boats) returning from Faeroe cod fishery, but not to land fish - it seems most of them carried contraband!
After admiring the red granite stacks and cliffs we crossed a hillside to another impressive natural harbour at North Ham and from there on our walk became much tougher!
On this return part of our journey the paths were very poorly defined or non existent and our way required us to climb steep rocky hills and in places to traverse across rocky outcrops with only the rough sea along way down on our right hand side.
We also needed to circumnavigate a huge crevasse where the path was hardly wide enough for one boot to pass the other, and in parts we needed to scramble using all 4 paws.
The terrain also made it impossible to admire the views while walking - that would almost certainly have resulted in a very unpleasant incident! Therefore multiple stops were required as another rock formation came into our sights. Oh, and did I say it was wet and very boggy in places!
Finally we came to the last mile of our walk and some of this was beside a land locked Loch but even here our way wasn't simple because the rocky path was only 8 inches wide and high up above the lapping water.
Now, don't get me wrong about this walk, it was tough, wild and totally exhilarating and as we're going to do a similar one tomorrow we must have enjoyed it 😉.
And that's it for this blog now! So far we've spent most of our time in the north and northwest of Shetland and loved it, but the next edition will tell more of how we go on in the South and on the water xx
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