On to the Shetland Islands!

Thursday, October 27, 2016 ~ by Amy

At 6:00 am, a very pleasant woman's voice came over the Hjaltland intercom, letting us know that we would be arriving in Lerwick, Mainland Shetland Island at 7:30 and that breakfast was now being served. We had had a rather rough night with the boat tossing side to side and stem to stern. We never quite fell off our bunks but came close. Thus, we were not ready to get up at 6:00, or even at 7:00 when she'd given her second announcement and our alarm had gone off. Because we had paid for valet parking, we didn't have to get off the ferry until 9:30. We dressed and then had a light breakfast. Again, we had prepaid for an “all inclusive” breakfast but the thought of eating meat after rocking around all night was disturbing. At last, at 9:30, we made our way down the walkway, picked up our keys and drove off. As we left, we could see the underbelly of the ferry yawning open where our car had been parked.

Aberdeen ~ Lerwick Ferry with car door open

NorthLink Ferry, Lerwick Harbor

As we drove out of the lot we saw a welcome sign in several language. As has been true anytime we leave a tourist area, there was a reminder for driving on the left. I realized then that it has finally become natural for me to walk to the right side of the car and to drive on the left. Undoing a forty-year habit of driving on the right, from the left side of the car only took about a week!  

Welcome to the Shetland Islands!

The Shetland Islands are the northernmost point of the UK.  There are four main inhabited islands, getting smaller as you go north ~ Mainland, Yell, Fetlar and Unst.  We would be staying two nights on Unst. To get there, we would drive north up to the top of the mainland, take a ferry to Yell, drive all the way up Yell and get on another ferry to Unst.  One thing that drastically changed on our ride over was the weather.  When we left Aberdeen it was only cloudy with a few showers.  As we drove north on the mainland we could feel the wind pushing our car sideways and showers of rain and hail pounding it.  Another thing that changed was the scenery.  The land is shockingly desolate..almost a lunar landscape for miles and miles.  Surprisingly, it is well populated with sheep. They roam everywhere, even on the roads.

Barren Shetland Island in the mist

Loch of Girlsta

Dales Voe

With more time than we needed to drive to the next ferry point, we attempted to find a castle that was clearly shown on the map. It didn't take long before we were sure we were lost. We somehow missed all of the inhabited area of the island and found ourselves out on narrow, barren roads, with almost zero visibility due to driving rains. Eventually we found our way back to the 2 lane road heading north and found the ferry terminal at the Booth of Toft.  Our Airbnb host on the Island of Unst had booked our crossings. She allowed time for us to tour around before our crossing from Mainland to Yell. We got there early so just took an earlier crossing. It didn't seem to matter whether we had reservations or not.

Sheep on the road ~ Toft ferry terminal

We drove onto the ferry deck. When the guy came to take our tickets I asked if we needed to remain in our cars. He encouraged us to get out an go up onto the waiting area. There was nice big windows and comfortable seats with a vending machine or two nearby. We were just getting comfortable when a guy came up the stairs and asked rather crossly, “Do you have a silver Mercedes?”. It took me a second to realize that he was talking to me and that I was indeed guilty as charged. “Well, your car alarm is going off!”. We ran back downstairs and shut it off. A trucker leaned out his window and told us that it was caused by the motion of the ferry. He suggested that we leave it unlocked. We did, and ran back upstairs. Just as we reached the top we heard it go off again. This time we just sat in the cold car and waited until we docked.

Leaving Ulsta, we drove north toward Gutcher, near the top of the Island of Yell. Once again we tried to follow signs to something historical...this time, The Old Haa Museum. Once again we couldn't find it. Their signage leaves much to be desired. Suddenly I saw a little church beside the road and pulled off in front of it. The sign on the building proclaimed it, “Church of Scotland, Saint Magnus, Hamnavoe, Yell.

Church of Scotland, Saint Magnus, Hamnavoe, Yell

I assumed that it wouldn't be open but figured that we could at least explore the enclosed cemetery. Surprisingly, both the outer gate and the front door of the church were unlocked. No one seemed to be about but I felt welcome to go in anyway.  

The church smelled of old wood and hymnals. A wooden plaque on the wall below the balcony listed Reverend J. Fallowsdaill as minister in 1562. It seems that by 1956 they abandoned the idea of painting names on the board while J. Scott was still serving.  

The thick stone walls were highlighted by the beautiful wood wrap around the windows.

Deep walls, accented by wood casings

New and old gravestones stood shoulder to shoulder in the stone walled cemetery. Many of the inscriptions were too worn to read. The Commonwealth war graves were noted on a single obelisk.

  

Cemetery, Church of Scotland, South Yell

Everywhere in Scotland, but especially on the islands it seems, there are the remains of stone castles and buildings. Many are unmarked or named and can be explored if you can find a road to them. We tried to reach this building but only ended up in a farmyard so we turned around and went back to the highway.  

Typical ruins alongside road

As we neared the ferry at Gutcher, we spotted a little cafe/store. We still hadn't eaten lunch and had time to kill so we went in. It was a cute little shop with all kinds of interesting things, a tiny lunch counter and a half dozen tables. The two women running it gladly modified their menu to make us a tuna melt and a grilled cheese. Both plates came with the requisite sides of salad, coleslaw and “crisps”.

Tuna melt with salad, coleslaw and crisps

Biscuits and sweets

 As we were looking at the packaged cookies, one of us commented about something about candy.  A guy nearby sort of made fun of us for our accent and for saying candy instead of sweets.  He said that we were obviously American.  I admitted that we are and asked him what I was supposed to have said and he said sweets.  I pointed to some desserts in a case and asked what they were and he said they were also sweets.  Not so defining.  I know what I want.

"American hot dogs" I'm curious what's in that can

The name says it all

We got our car in line for the ferry at 3:30 and soon were loaded. We stayed in our car this time to avoid running when the alarm goes off.  

Ferry to the island of Unst

The crossing only took 10-15 minutes and then we rolled off the car deck onto the island of Unst.

Welcome to Unst!  The most northern point of the UK

The first thing we saw as we drove away from the Belmont terminal was a field of Shetland ponies!

Shetland ponies ~ Unst, Shetland Is

As we drove north up the island, we could see it was pretty much the same as the other two...very desolate looking and mostly uninhabited. We followed our hostess' directions into the town of Baltasound, really just a tiny scattering of small buildings. A little sign pointing down a side road stated simply, “SHOP”. We pulled off to get some groceries. We had been told in advance that there were three shops in town that would carry most anything we need except gourmet produce, etc. The shop we walked into was amazing. It was crammed wall to wall with the most random stuff. The aisles were extremely narrow. They had little metal hand baskets that you could fill but no cart would have ever fit through the aisles. Cartons of six eggs were packed in with dry goods. Small heads of lettuce were by bars of soap. You could buy anything from mud boots (wellies), to casserole dishes, to sprinkles for your cupcakes. It reminded me a little of Marv Husa's store in Belden, North Dakota when I was a child, except probably less organized. And then, fully covering the checkout counter was an array of freshly baked bread.

Christmas corner ~ H. Henderson's shop

Plenty of housewares ~ H. Henderson's shop

We couldn't find any garlic but got a red onion, a butternut squash, a bag of dried pasta and a bottle of freeze dried sage. These would be dinner for 2 nights. Also a block of Scottish cheddar, a pack of sliced ham, six eggs, a loaf of wheat bread, a small bottle of milk, a tub of Shetland butter, a couple of bags of candy, a silicone spatula and 2 boxes of dry cereal. This would be 2 breakfasts and 2 lunches. All of that came to only 23 British pounds. That's a little over $25 US dollars for 6 meals for 2 people. Not bad for being on vacation where we'd normally spend at least that on lunch out.

From the store, we made our way down the narrow roads to our home for the next couple of days ~ Ordaal House.   

Ordaal House ~ near Baltasound, Unst, Shetland Is, UK