Lerwick, Shetland Scotland - 1 of 5

Lara took us, along with Cindy & Ron, for a private 6 hour tour of Lerwick, the main town and capital of the 100 Shetland Islands. It is about 260 miles off the north coast of the Scottish mainland and 290 miles from Norway and even further north than Oslo, Norway. It therefore has influences that are Scottish, Danish, Norwegian and Dutch (Dutch were here in 1600). It is at 60 degrees latitude same as Anchorage, Alaska. Lerwick is Shetland's only town, with a population of about 7,500 although more than 10,000 of the islands' 22,000 people live within 10 miles. Lerwick has 5 industries- fishing (herring, mackerel and salmon), oil & gas (since the major discoveries here in the 1970’s), tourism, agriculture and of course, knitting (in the 1700-1800s. the knitting trade was used as currency).

Lerwick’s claim to fame is being the birthplace of Arthur Anderson, founder of P&O and credited with inventing CRUISING. His home (Bod Gremista) is a textile museum.Read more