Britain's most northerly islands lie almost 160 kilometers (99 miles) north of the Scottish mainland, at a similar latitude to the southern tip of Greenland or Bergen in Norway. Kept relatively warm by the Gulf Stream, Shetland's 100 islands experience almost 24 hours of daylight in summer. They abound with nature reserves and archaeological sites and offer a taste of traditional island life. You plan to explore some of the following sites:
Midway between Orkney and Shetland, Fair Isle houses a major European ornithological research station famous for knitwear and historic shipwrecks. It is surrounded by impressive cliffs, about five kilometers by three kilometers / three miles by two miles in area. The 70 or so islanders mainly live in traditional crofts on the island's more fertile, low-lying southern part.
Fair Isle is a bird watchers' paradise on the intersection of major flight paths from Scandinavia, Iceland, and Faroe. In summer, the cliffs teem with breeding fulmars, kittiwakes, guillemots, gannets, shags and puffins. The Isle is an excellent place to view seabirds, especially puffins, at close range. Fair Isle has over 250 flowering plants, including wetland flowers, rare orchids, alpine species, and common wildflowers. The hospitable villagers will welcome you and may take a hike or visit the museum. Grey and common seals inhabit these waters around Fair Isle, while sharp eyes may spot harbor porpoises, white-beaked dolphins, Atlantic white-sided dolphins, killer whales (orcas), and minke whales.
Jarlshof is one of Shetland's best-preserved and most complex archaeological sites. It was exposed by storms in the late 19th century. The Old House of Sumburgh, built here in the 17th century, was named 'Jarlshof' by Sir Walter Scott in his novel 'The Pirate.' The record of human occupation dates from around 3,200 BCE. Jarlshof's main Bronze Age site is the house of a bronzesmith working around 800 BC. Clay moulds into which molten bronze was poured revealed that he was casting axe heads and short swords. It seems that Shetland suited early Norse settlers, for they quickly settled here and left their mark on Shetland's history for ages to come.
With its mile-long seabird cliffs, the Island of Noss is a National Nature Reserve. In breeding season, the sound of around 150,000 birds and chicks fills the air. Millions of years of wind and ice have honeycombed thousands of nesting ledges in sandstone cliffs almost 200 meters / 656 feet high. Resident seals and visiting otters feed in dense kelp around the shores.
Mousa Broch, on the small uninhabited island of Mousa, is the best preserved of Scotland's 570 brochs (fortified Iron Age towers). Storm petrels nest among its stones, which can be seen when visiting the broch at night. In daylight, a large colony of common and grey seals basks on its shores, and you may spot otters (Dratsi, in Shetland dialect).
