Scrabster to Shetland (v.2)

16th to 20th June
Scrabster-Hoy-Stromness-Eday-Fair Isle-Scalloway

We’re moored off  the little Shetland village of Scalloway and we’re closer to Norway than Aberdeen. I hadn’t appreciated that Shetland really is a long way north. It seems a long time since leaving mainland Scotland and a lot has happened. We’ve stopped for nights in Orkney and Fair Isle on the way north.

Naval cemetery, Hoy

Ferry entering Hoy Sound as we left (Old Man of Hoy behind)

Wave energy ??

Wet walk on Eday, Orkland

Stone of Setter (I think)

North to Fair Isle

North Haven, Fair Isle

History lessons from the books and pamphlets tell me things I should have known – but did you? Field-Marshal Earl Kitchener was drowned along with all aboard, save twelve survivors, in June 1916 off Marwick Head, Orkney, when the cruiser Hampshire struck a mine in very heavy seas and sank immediately. His memorial is on the headland and we visited the naval cemetery on Hoy where many others have their graves.

The island of Eday in the northern part of Orkney has the Stone of Setter, which has been there for thousands of years. We had a wet walk, seeing both that and ancient chambered cairns nearby. Extraordinary to think of early man settling here whilst England was relatively empty.

Yesterday, we enjoyed a sunny reach under cruising chute to Fair Isle about 40 miles north of Orkney. How strange it feels to reach a little island in the middle of nowhere with big Atlantic swell crashing into the western cliffs, and thousands of sea birds circling and roosting above. But there’s a thriving crofting community on Fair Isle as well lots of visitors who go to see birds, and a huge RSPB lodge, like a giant Alpine chalet.

Our first stop in Shetland is the little port of Scalloway (the old capital of Shetland), and we have a berth, rocking vigorously on a little pontoon by the Scalloway Boating Club….later we take a bus to Lerwick where dozens of racing yachts have arrived after racing across from Bergen. (Lucky we hadn’t opted to come here; it’s like Cowes with very smart racing yachts rafted six and seven abreast against the busy pontoon.)

Rainbow on Fair Isle

Approaching Scalloway, Shetland