Tuesday 26 June 2012

Scalloway, Shetland Islands

Two days ago we made the 65 mile passage from Sanday in the northern Orkney's to St. Ninians Bay on the southwestern end of the Sumburgh Peninsular. A cold and rough trip, hard on the wind the whole way, in a Force 4 - 5 northerly wind. But what a spectacular place to anchor. A mile wide bay, steep cliffs dotted with nesting birds, grass covered slopes to the east and west and a bright yellow scimitar sand beach at the head. Yesterday we motor sailed against the north wind 15 miles up the Peninsular to the old town of Scalloway set at the end of a winding passage between islands. Scalloway was once the capital of the Shetlands as evidenced by the massive fortified 16 century castle at the head of the harbour.

Our last report was from Shapinsay where we spent three days before moving north to Sanday one of the richest agricultural islands in the Orkney's. It is also the richest in terms of archaeology with many sites from 6000 years ago through to Viking times. One that we visited was the burial site of a Viking longship discovered in 1991 complete with three skeletons and a trove of jewelry and an iron sword.

We had to make a carefully timed passage north through the 3/4 mile wide Sound between Sanday and Eday and on to Pierowall Harbour on Westray. The tide races through the Orkney's and although we thought that we would be in the narrows at relative slack water we ended up shooting through at 10 knots. An energy company is in the process of testing various sites around the Orkney's for the installation of tide driven power generation. Several years ago we saw such an installation by the same company in the Strangford Loch in Northern Ireland. Very impressive. Wind farms are a common site around the Orkney's and no wonder.... rolling hills to create uplift and it's always windy. They are more common in the Shetlands where there is even more wind and steeper hills.

Westray is probably the most dynamic of the Orkney Islands. Population about six hundred. Productive cattle and sheep farms, an offshore crab fishing fleet with a processing factory at Pierowall, several excellent craft shops selling their fine wool/silk/cotton clothing over the internet, a major salmon farming operation based in Pierowall that provides well paying work for young men, an offshore trawler that lands it's catch for processing in the town and distribution throughout the Orkney's and, finally, a bakery that supplies bread, biscuits throughout the Orkney's and often to Lerwick and mainland Scotland. The UK suffers from being a welfare state, but in these Islands and the Shetlands, the work ethic and sense of enterprise is alive and kicking.

We had some great walks on Westray while we waited for a change from the northeast wind. On one hike to the north shore we came across rows and rows of low (3 foot) stone walls. Later we found out that they were used in the late 1880's to dry seaweed which was exported to the UK for the manufacture of a variety of products including explosives, perfume, soaps and more. This was a major source of revenue for the governing Lairds of the Islands.

There is a recently refurbished museum in Scalloway telling the history of the fishing booms in herring, then cod followed by haddock. All that is now history and there is now only one trawler working out of the port. Much of the museum is devoted to the dramatic WWII exploits of The Shetland Bus. When Germany invaded Norway in 1942 many Norwegians escaped in fishing boats and most headed for the Shetlands. Over the next three years Norwegian sailors took fishing boats to Norway from Scalloway loaded with small arms, sabotage experts and radios. On the return trip they brought out refugees fleeing the Gestapo. The Norwegian Resistance tied up twelve battalions of Germans as Hitler become more convinced that England intended to launch an offensive in Norway. The Resistance blew up the German heavy water plant and put an end to German's development of an atomic bomb. To avoid German surveillance most of the to and fro traffic was in the winter months and many lives were lost to the fierce winter storms of the Norwegian Sea.

We have been to the Shetlands on other trips, but never to the west coast. We have only stopped at Lerwick en route to somewhere. So this time we are looking forward to one or two weeks of exploring the islands and bays of the northern Shetlands, visiting some of the old fishing villages and seeing some of the spectacular bird nesting cliffs.

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