Shetland Part 1: The Landscapes. . .

Earlier this month, I spent ten glorious days in Shetland.  What an extraordinary and extraordinarily beautiful place it is.  My mind is so completely absorbed by all I have seen and done, that it is going to take quite some time to process it all. I certainly can't encapsulate it all in just one blog post, so bear with me - I will need to divide up all my experiences into different categories.  Definitely if you are a keen walker or knitter, then Shetland is really the ideal vacation spot for you.

I only picked up this book - Walking Shetland by Mary Welsh and Christine Isherwood - near the end of my trip, but it will certainly be accompanying me when I return.  And I will return!  It includes walks on all the various islands and has a bit of a Wainwright look to it in terms of the illustrations, that I like.

I managed three decent walks myself, armed with just an ordinance map and a NHS leaflet given to me by the cab driver. The terrain is quite boggy at times so I was glad I'd brought gaiters.  I was staying in the quiet fishing town of Scalloway and had two small walks out to the nearby lighthouse.

My first main walk was in the hills above Scalloway. I walked up the Hill of Houlland and then along the moorland towards a series of lochs, getting as far as Maggie Black's Loch and then returning via the Hill of Burwick, the Hill of Berry and Gallow Hill.  I'll just let the views speak for themselves.

We managed on our tour to get to most of the islands of Shetland - they are filled with gorgeous beaches and stunning coastal cliffs and views.  Here are just a few of them. 

The island of Bressay at sunset, from the most amazing cafe/restaurant in Lerwick - Fjara (oh, the food was amazing there - I am still dreaming of their slow cooked beef cheeks):

St. Ninian's Beach:

Dore Holm:

The cliffs at Eshaness:

At Mavis Grind - the narrowest bit of land between the North Sea which you see here. . .

. . . and the Atlantic Ocean seen here.  You can see how different the light is too - these two photos were taken within five minutes of each other; I am just turning in two different directions.

The cliffs looking down from the path up to Sumburgh Lighthouse:

And this is the view of Bressay Lighthouse.  It's a three mile walk along the road from the ferry terminal.  We then turned to the left and walked up the hill to get a view of the island of Noss.  That is definitely a walk in waiting for my next visit.

On my last full day, I got up early to walk over the bridge onto the island of Trondra which is across from Scalloway.

The water was so still and beautiful.

I did a coastal walk around part of the island - in the photo below, you can just make out the white lighthouse of Scalloway across the water.

I then made my way to Meal Beach, on the island of Burra.  Absolutely gorgeous. I would love to have stayed longer, but it was four miles back and I wanted to catch the bus into Lerwick to meet the rest of my group and have one more browse among the yarn.  Oh yes, there was wool - lots of it!  But I will have to save that for another post.  In the meanwhile. just gaze on that turquoise blue.

Have I convinced you yet to book a trip to Shetland?