Ruth Craine’s Shetland – The Islands

‘What surprised me was that although in the middle of the summer holiday season there was no one there but me. I found the beach quite by accident as I was looking for somewhere else and took the wrong turning which I was glad I did. This is the site of an Old Norse settlement but little remains to be seen’

The Shetland Island archipelago consists of around a hundred islands of which sixteen are inhabited by humans. Following our previous visit to these beautiful islands in the last issue, where we concentrated on what is called ‘Mainland Shetland’. We now move on to four of the islands; Unst, Yell, Bressay and Mousa. The first two I visited alone, the second pair was with David and myself together. It wasn’t that David did not want to accompany me to Unst and Yell, it was just that he was on a fishing boat for a day, so I found myself alone to go exploring.

So, on to the islands of Unst and Yell…

An early start (5:30 a.m.) was made on the beautiful sunny morning of Monday July 28 2025. We had to drive north to the ferry terminal at Toft to catch another early ferry to Ulsta on the island of Yell, a journey of around twenty minutes. This journey was followed by a twenty-seven mile trip north across the island to the marina at Cullivoe where I dropped David to catch his charter boat for a day’s cod fishing. A short trip was made a little further down the east coast of Yell and I found myself at the ferry terminal at Gutcher for my ferry to Belmont on Unst, the crossing took around ten minutes. When I arrived on Unst I was struck immediately by how quiet it was. I knew it was still quite early but there was no one around and the excellent pot-hole free roads were empty of traffic. The sat-nav was switched off; there weren’t enough roads for me to get lost on. I headed north to where the road ran out at the Hermaness Nature Reserve. 

The view in this photo is of Saxa Vord, looking across the water of Burra Firth. There is a five-mile circular walk to the point where you can see Muckle Flugga and the UK’s most northerly lighthouse. Sadly, it soon became apparent that I hadn’t left myself enough time to do the walk and explore the rest of the island before having to catch the ferry back to the island of Yell. Another thing that crossed my mind was that I was utterly alone. This was quite an easy walk, I believed, but being in such a remote spot I didn’t think it wise to wander off on my own. I would have liked to see the lighthouse but we are going back next year so we can hopefully do this walk together then.

Back to the car and a short drive to the small (it turned out to be very small) village of Haroldswick on the east coast, where I was hoping to find a cafe. I did find one but it was nothing like what I was expecting, as you can see from the picture below, Le Petitcafe.

Honesty boxes, we discovered, are everywhere in Shetland, from fridges full of cakes, eggs, jam…the list just goes on and on. This was a first for me, an honesty cafe. It’s all self service, you fill the kettle from a tap on the wall, select your drink and snack, then literally put it all together yourself. There is also a selection of French food for sale in the boxes, a selection of polished stones and jewellery just off to the right of the photo.

On the opposite side of the road overlooking the bay is a table in a small shelter with two chairs, should it be raining on your arrival, and here I found the Unst Stone weather forecasting station. I think this method of forecasting the weather could turn out to be a lot more reliable than the ones conducted by the Met. Office.

Having enjoyed my DIY drink and snack I left the cafe behind, drove off and then spotted this place, Hamars & Harps. Hamar is an Old Norse word meaning ‘rocky outcrop by the sea’ (from the Shetland.org website).

Hamars & Harps produces online and in-person concerts produced by company director Sunita Staneslow, the governor of the Shetland branch of the Scottish Clarsach Society. The organisation offers harp and culture tours and harp retreats in the USA, Scotland, Tuscany and Shetland. The company also produces events, classes and retreats for yoga, martial arts and circus arts. It is restoring the historic Hamars property in Haroldswick and developing a showcase organic garden in the grounds. Can’t say I’m too sure about how the restoration project is going at the moment, not very well by the looks of it.

Leaving the area around Haroldswick behind, I realised that because of my aimless driving around, time was running short before having to catch the ferry back to Yell, which I was also eager to explore. 

Just one more place to look at before catching the ferry. In the south-east of the island is the beautiful unspoilt beach at Sandwick. What surprised me was that although in the middle of the summer holiday season there was no one there but me. I found the beach quite by accident as I was looking for somewhere else and took the wrong turning which I was glad I did. This is the site of an Old Norse settlement but little remains to be seen. There was a lot of Unst I was missing but the return trip in 2027 will hopefully resolve all that.

Arriving back on Yell I decided to head south, choosing the south-east, not to where the ferry terminal was located on the south-west coast. 

Above is the pretty marina at Burravoe

This was well worth the interesting drive of around six miles on a single-track, narrow road with passing places every so often. The road is also on a ridge in places with steep drops at either side. Had there been two of us in the car I could have possibly stopped more along the route to grab a few photos but, being alone, stopping in the passing places was not really practical or safe. As it turned out, I didn’t see another car, nor did I see anyone else in Burravoe. Having had a wander around the marina it was time to head back north, the miles were clocking up and the hours passing by. Time to return to Cullivoe…Arriving with time to spare before David was due, I went off to explore a place I’d seen on the map called The Sands of Brecon.

The above view was taken from where I parked the car but I had to get down there. I spotted the path and set off… 

The walk took around twenty minutes car to beach and, when I got there, this is what I found: a beautiful nearly white beach but the best thing aspect was that there was just me and the seabirds. I wandered around for what seemed like an age before I realised that it was time to go and I would reluctantly have to leave this amazing place behind. A short while later, fisherman and catch were collected and we headed off back to the Mainland.

There were just a couple more islands to explore before we depart Shetland, those of Bressay and Mousa. The Bressay ferry sails from Albert Buildings in the centre of Lerwick every hour and the crossing takes around seven minutes. The island is inhabited but is very unspoilt. Having left the ferry, we parked the car near the lighthouse and walked up Ward Hill to look at the view across to Lerwick on the Mainland. The lighthouse is no longer in use and has been converted into holiday rentals.

Bressay shelters Lerwick harbour from the North Sea and for many centuries the Bressay Sound has been a port of refuge for shipping. A short drive away on the other side of Bressay is the island of Noss. Its name derives from a Viking word meaning ‘headland shaped like a nose’.

There is a ferry from Bressay which takes three minutes to cross Noss Sound and operates every day except Mondays and Thursdays, weather and sea conditions permitting, from May to late August between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. Noss itself is uninhabited and hosts a nature reserve. We didn’t cross on this occasion as there was some fishing planned on the Bressay side, after we’d made it down to the rocks on the shore. Maybe we will make another trip on our next visit as there is a three-mile walk around the island. 

The final island we visited on this occasion was Mousa, famed for its Broch and is reached via a short trip on the Mousa boat. Mousa (‘Mossy Island’ in Old Norse) is, today, an RSPB Nature Reserve with important breeding colonies of seals and seabirds. 

The Mousa Broch is the best preserved Iron Age tower in existence and visitors can still climb the staircase to its top. The climb is a bit narrow but well worth it for the views and to see the workmanship inside the 2000 year old building. The broch is legendary, having featured in a couple of the Old Norse Sagas as a place of captivity and hiding, and in more recent times as the secret store for smugglers.

Above is a photo of the beautiful blue water of West Pool on Mousa which is a favourite haunt of seals. There is also an Arctic tern colony living here, so you must keep to the designated path. Known in Shetland as the ‘tirrick’, this tern and its colony will defend their territory by swooping from a great height to frighten any intruder. This tactic works too, although we didn’t see any here during our visit. We had, however, been ‘bothered’ by them in the garden of our holiday cottage.

The Mousa Lighthouse in the photo is located on the island of Peerie Bard. The lighthouse was first lit in 1951 and replaced one which had previously been located on the nearby headland of Noness. This one is twenty metres tall and solar powered. 

Well, everyone, that brings us to the end of our tour of these wonderful Shetland Islands. As mentioned we plan to return in 2027 so hopefully there will more photos and stories to tell.

Writing & Images Ruth Craine, May 2026