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Britain's most northerly...
Mar. 17th, 2009 09:18 pmThe day after we had visited the southernmost tip of Shetland (southernmost, that is, excluding Fair Isle, which will have to wait for another trip), naturally, we had to head as far north as we could. Two ferries took us from Mainland to Yell, and from Yell to Unst, the most northerly inhabited island: in fact we cut it fine crossing Yell, and screeched down to the jetty to see the ferry pulling away - but as we watched, it paused, and then backed up to collect us.
We drove all the way north to Hermaness, and walked far enough beyond the end of the road that honour was satisfied. We didn't reach the coast ("Next time," we said), but we walked further than we'd intended to, because the air was cold and clear and hard as rock crystal, and the stones glittered in the sunlight. There were bonxies (great skuas) nesting, but there was also a great twittering of small birds. Sea birds don't seem to dominate the avian conversation in Shetland the way they do in Orkney - several times on the road north we'd disturbed gangs of starlings.
Unst is 12 miles long and five miles wide, with a population of 500: what would we find to entertain us there? There were Shetland ponies - and baby ponies, even smaller and fluffier than the adults (Shetland has a number of distinct species, smaller than the equivalent elsewhere in Britain, apparently: as well as the ponies, there are the sheep which provide wool for the knitwear, and a Shetland wren). We had lunch in the Northern Lights Bistro and Gallery, where we drank beer from the Valhalla Brewery, "the most northerly brewery in the United Kingdom." We visited the boat museum, bought knitwear from the knitwear shop and failed to post anything at Britain's most northerly post office (where it would have received a distinctive puffin postmark). We explored Muness Castle - Scotland's most northerly castle ('most northerly' is a recurring theme in Shetland - Britain's most northerly barbershop stood at the end of the street where we were staying in Lerwick - but it is on Unst that it really comes into its own).
Unst's major tourist attraction, though, is none of these things: ( Ta - DAH! )
Then it was back to the ferry and the drive south down the length of Mainland in golden evening sun that warmed all the colours of the moorland.
We drove all the way north to Hermaness, and walked far enough beyond the end of the road that honour was satisfied. We didn't reach the coast ("Next time," we said), but we walked further than we'd intended to, because the air was cold and clear and hard as rock crystal, and the stones glittered in the sunlight. There were bonxies (great skuas) nesting, but there was also a great twittering of small birds. Sea birds don't seem to dominate the avian conversation in Shetland the way they do in Orkney - several times on the road north we'd disturbed gangs of starlings.
Unst is 12 miles long and five miles wide, with a population of 500: what would we find to entertain us there? There were Shetland ponies - and baby ponies, even smaller and fluffier than the adults (Shetland has a number of distinct species, smaller than the equivalent elsewhere in Britain, apparently: as well as the ponies, there are the sheep which provide wool for the knitwear, and a Shetland wren). We had lunch in the Northern Lights Bistro and Gallery, where we drank beer from the Valhalla Brewery, "the most northerly brewery in the United Kingdom." We visited the boat museum, bought knitwear from the knitwear shop and failed to post anything at Britain's most northerly post office (where it would have received a distinctive puffin postmark). We explored Muness Castle - Scotland's most northerly castle ('most northerly' is a recurring theme in Shetland - Britain's most northerly barbershop stood at the end of the street where we were staying in Lerwick - but it is on Unst that it really comes into its own).
Unst's major tourist attraction, though, is none of these things: ( Ta - DAH! )
Then it was back to the ferry and the drive south down the length of Mainland in golden evening sun that warmed all the colours of the moorland.
