Shetland

We woke this morning as we were arriving in Lerwick, the capital and only town in Shetland, on the largest island, Mainland.

Shetland is made up of 100 islands, only 15 are permanently inhabited.
From speaking with our guide, the island group should be referred to as Shetland or The Shetland Islands, but never The Shetlands - the locals are very thingy about that! While we're on pronunciation, the capital is pronounced Ler-wick, not Lerrick. A wick is a square shaped bay, so the W needs to be pronounced.. another advice from the guide!

Our morning tour was a bus trip to Sumburgh Head, for whale and bird spotting near the lighthouse . 3 orcas have been seen this week, but the mist and low cloud made it impossible to see anything!

The weather had cleared slightly when we visited Jarshof, a prehistoric and Norse settlement, but this time there was a range of building remains dating from 2500 BC up to the 17th century AD, all on the same small site.

After lunch on the ship we had a walking tour of Lerwick, mostly in the rain. We visited the museum, town hall and shopping precinct, before breaking off for some shopping and caching of our own.En savoir plus