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Shetland Holiday June 2025

Earlier in the year, knowing that it was unlikely that Julie would be recovered enough to undertake a ‘normal’ walking holiday; I looked at where we could fly to from Dundee airport. Dundee airport is tiny; it’s never had many flights to many places, but does run a flight to Sumburgh, Shetland. We had often talked about a holiday on Shetland, and this presented the ideal opportunity. We booked the flights, arranged to hire a car for the week and accommodation at the Brae Hotel.

Dundee airport is tiny

We arrived at Sumburgh too early to go immediately to the hotel. And given the location of the airport, the most southerly part of Shetland – somewhere we would unlikely travel back to for another reason than our return flight home – we looked for something to do around Sumburgh. Immediately adjacent to the airport is Jarlshof prehistoric site. We therefore spent a couple of hours exploring Jarlshof, and it is a must see highlight of any trip to Shetland.

The whole site is less than 100m by 100m, but has had continuous occupation for over 4000-years! Sharing a lot of similarity to Skara Brae on Orkney, Jarlshofs’ ancient history was also revealed after a big storm. However Jarlshof is much larger than Skara Brae and has remains of Viking occupation as well as the prehistoric structures.

After visiting Jarlshof we drove north to our accommodation: the Brae Hotel. Brae is a good location from which to explore the main island of Shetland. We didn’t know that Up Helly Aa was celebrated by many local villages, not just at Lerwick. Here at Brae, the hotel displays the winning Viking shields from many years of Brae’s Up Helly Aa’ The following day we drove north to Isbister from where a 6-mile walk heads further north to the most northerly point on the main island: Fetherland.

At Fetherland you can explore an abandoned fishing village. For around 200-years the villagers ran a fleet of around sixty deep-sea fishing boats. The remains of the village, together with its location, are rather haunting.

Next day the weather was fabulous, and we decided to visit St Ninian’s Isle. This is a much photographed island (although now attached to the mainland by a tombolo), and has featured on a number of films and TV programs.

No so long ago St Ninian’s was a true island. Now an accumulation of sand, called a tombolo, has produced this delightful causeway – at least, that is, until the next big storm.

At the highest tides the causeway is at its narrowest. During our visit the tide was going out; there was far more sand on our return over the tombolo than when we started. The remains of the 12th-century St Ninian’s chapel.

We walked around the island – a delightful 4-mile – past impressive sea cliffs hosting a great number of sea-birds.

We had one torrentially rainy day; we went to Lerwick (Shetland’s capital) which, unknown to us, had a visit from a 6000-berth ocean liner. One of the world’s largest cruise ships, the Virtuosa’ population was not much lower than the 7000 folk than live in Lerwick. The cruise ship does nothing to enhance the photo of Detective Inspector Perez fictional house.

You couldn’t visit Shetland without seeing the ponies that the islands are famous for.

By chance we left the best of our visit to Shetland to the last day. The coastline of Esha Ness is, quite simply, incredible – amongst the most dramatic coastlines Julie and I have ever seen! The weather wasn’t marvellous, but neither was it horrendous; it fitted the drama of the coastline. From the car park at the lighthouse you can follow the coast to the north, past some amazing scenery. In a violent storm, this place would be both incredible and terrifying in equal measure. Near the lighthouse the sea has cut a deep cleft in the cliffs.

The drama continues as we head further north.

After a mile or so to the north we came to the Holes of Scraada. In the right-hand image above, the cleft cutting into the cliff leads to a tunnel. The tunnel is around 150m long and leads to a large collapsed sea cave: the Holes of Scaada.

150m from the sea cliffs is the collapsed cave with a small sandy beach and the sea washing in with the waves. A kayak enthusiast, Nick ray, has a YouTube channel of his exploits – one of which is his traverse of the tunnel from sea to collapsed cave. Great to see, but you wouldn’t get me there!

It was a good holiday to Shetland: rather bleak and treeless; the coastline is the gem!

Cheers!