Shetland north, south, east and west.

We spent 5 nights on Shetland, our longest stay in one place during the whole Scotland adventure.

We’ve covered the length and breadth of Shetland Mainland. We’ve driven as far south as you can go, taken the ferries to Yell and Unst going as far north as we could get, crossed the bridges to Trondra and Hamnavoe from Scalloway, and explored as far west as Eshaness. We didn’t have time to travel to the islands to the east, but Unst got us fairly well east as well as north.

On the day we travelled to the north west, we visited Hillswick Wildlife Rescue Centre. There were only two seals in residence, Smudge who has a chromosome disorder and cannot return to the wild as he can’t see or swim well enough to hunt, and Leo who was rescued from Orkney at a few days old when his mum failed to return to feed him. Leo will soon be strong enough to return to the sea. Summer was able to help Racheal feed them some fish, while the centre’s founder told us about their work. We also visited a small museum at Tangwick, in the Haa (manor house).

The The following day we walked into Lerwick, only a 10 minute walk. We explored the museum which had some things Racheal could feel or listen to and a lift to upstairs. After a mediocre lunch in the arts centre next door, we wandered through the small shops and took a look at the old harbour.

Across the road from our ground floor flat, with level access at the back, was a play park with wheelchair accessible swing. It would be rude not to try it out! Our radar key opened the gate, and unlocked the swing from a securing post.

Summer had been researching evening activities for us and found a fiddle music session about 20 minutes away in Sandwick, which we all enjoyed.

The first wet day of our trip was the day we had chosen to go to Unst, the most northerly inhabited island of the British Isles. Undeterred, we set off to catch the ferry to Yell and then on to Unst. The young man directing the boarding of the Unst ferry, which carries a whopping 12 vehicles the 10 minute journey, informed us it had been ‘manic’ because of the Unst show. We later discovered virtually everything was closed because of said show, but we were able to visit the unmanned, Viking long house museum.

Our biggest challenge was the path at Hermaness. This leads to the most northerly point but, despite our best efforts, we had to give up when we came to the first board walk because it had steps. The path does not claim to be wheelchair accessible, but I wanted to see how far we could get!

Before heading back to Lerwick, we stopped off to post cards at the most northerly post office in Baltasound so they would get the special postmark.

Our visit to Shetland was rounded off with a visit to the Croft House museum and water mill. We had been warned about the narrow doors at the Croft, so took Racheal’s smaller chair. There were lots of things for her to feel and the fire was burning so it was very cosy inside.

Finally, as we waited for the ferry in the afternoon we hoped to visit Scalloway castle. However, it was closed for structural repairs so after a walk through the village we drove to Hamnavoe where we discovered a tiny cottage covered in shells.