Fair Isle. Day two.

Fair Isle. Day two

We were able to walk to the South Light after dinner for a couple of reasons. Firstly, dinner is served at 6pm, so quite early and secondly that the summer days in Shetland are very long. It is nearly 60 degrees north of the equator (Raleigh is 32 North or so) so the difference in the day length is much greater than home. It is early May and there is still six weeks to the summer solstice and even now it is light at 4.30 and only gets dark, after a long dusk, around 10.

People on Yell and Unst which are further north say that it is really a prolonged dusk that turns into a prolonged dawn and that it really does not get dark. Conversely the winter days are very short and that is generally tougher on people.

The Fair Isle Bird Observatory is a not for profit organization and has had an observatory for many years, but built a new building that was completed in 2010. It can accommodate about 40 guests and about 10 staff who are also Rangers and PhD students. There are some volunteers who pay a nominal sum to stay and help with cleaning and cooking. The rooms are simple but well furnished with attached bathroom and the atmosphere is more of a grown up college dorm/ B&B/Hostel. There are no room keys and the meals are all taken in a community dining room. Three meals a day are included in the price and it is about $80 per person per day, which is remarkably inexpensive for the standards achieved. Chris was the chef and produced consistently tasty meals with accommodations for different dietary requirements. We had an excellent Sunday lunch of roast beef (there was even some rare beef) with roasted potatoes and cooked, but not overcooked vegetables. There was no choice but in reality none was needed!

 

On Sunday we basically decided to do our own things. Mags wanted to go to church, one of two on the island and it was the Church of Scotland who had the service this week and the Methodists get their turn next week. I get the feeling that of the people who go they will go to either service.

I elected to take a solo walk and Steve and Alison took a short walk down by the harbor.

I had a rudimentary map, and the island is small so I was confident that I would not get lost. There is a system of writing your name on a board and an approx destination or route so that if you do get lost the searchers will have an ide where to look for you.

I headed up across the moorland to the airstrip and on a rough road that lead uphill to a large communication tower with microwave dishes and antennae and then along the same path, known I discovered as the “Peat Road”. 

View of North Light from Peat Road

Bonxtie country

This goes to the one area on the island where there is peat suitable for cutting for fuel for the fireplace

I could see the North Light and indeed at one point could actually see both lights one at each end of the island. It was windy, but you get used to this on Shetland

One thing we were warned about are Bonxties which are large birds ( I estimate in the order of five pounds) that live in pairs in the heather on the ground. They are very protective of their territory and if you invade they send up one of the two, or sometimes both to drive you off. They do this by dive-bombing you and if not deterred they will collide with the highest part of you, which for most of us is our head! The defense is to hold your arm above you and that is what they dive for. On one occasion I think they ganged up on me as there were a squadron of about 8 that were circling for their chance to take a shot. No direct hits I am pleased to report.

From the peat road I took off across the heather and crossed a couple of streams back to the road that leads to the North Light, and then back to the Observatory. I really had a nice quiet walk and some time for each of us to spend alone. We are all getting on very well and I think that occasional breaks like this help ensure that it will continue to be so!
Later in the afternoon Mags and I walked down to the nicely sheltered harbor to look at the ferry and climb up on to the small peninsular Burness which is a home to a large puffin colony.

A spring lamb stretches those all important muscles that make for a great and tasty leg of lamb!

Diversity in the lamb population

Sunday evening Puffin walk with Ranger Carrie originally from Thurso North Scotland

Carrie, Mags, Alison and Steve

We looked at the ferry that operates three times a week in summer and once a week in winter. Little did we know that we would become more connected to the ferry as time went on.

View of the harbor. You can just see the ferry at right of center

The ferry safe in it's little cove

Mags and me below the ferry

The ferry is quite different than the ones we experienced in other parts of Shetland. All of the others are RoRo (Roll on roll off) and generally much bigger that “The Good Shepherd” RoRo is basically where you drive on, but the Good Shepherd has a crane to lift vehicles on and off and it only holds about 2 cars at a time.

Loading the ferry. Note the list on the boat!

re 

Almost safely aboard

When not in use the ferry is hauled out of the water and it’s home is in a very sheltered cove that was dug out of the rock. It looks very cosy and was necessitated by the sinking of another ferry in the 1970s (I think) in the harbor with all the consequent troubles!

Mags and I took a short evening walk up to the remains of a WW2 Heinkel (German) aircraft that was shot down in 1941. It was a weather reporting plane with a crew of five. Two died in the crash and it took a week or more to get the others to a prison camp. In the interim they had become friendly with the islanders. The pilot (twenty one at the time) returned to Fair Isle at least twice since the war to visit. The engines and parts of the fuselage remain where they impacted (or close) almost 70 years ago.

Tail section and a piece of wing.

Remains of the engines

Monday morning found us with less wind but low cloud and the prediction that our scheduled 9.30 flight would likely not operate. The prediction was accurate and indeed nothing operated that day and we eventually took the ferry on Tuesday morning to Grutness on the south end of mainland Shetland.

They actually operated 3 flights on the Tuesday although none were scheduled just to catch up and we rode past Tingwall as the first one landed.

The ferry was certainly an experience and not for the faint of heart. It is a short vessel that is quite high and designed for the task, but rolls and bobs around even in moderate swells. We asked a crewman how he rated the journey on a scale of 1-10 and he rated it a 2 to a 3. There is a small cabin below for passengers when it gets rough and it is equipped with 12 seats with seat covers and seatbelts. I can fully understand how all might be needed in rough waters. The water came to within 3 ft of the portholes in the weather we experienced and we were told that it easily covered the portholes in rougher weather. The crossing is about 2 ½ hours and I believe this would be an eternity in bad weather. It introduces a level of respect for those who brave the seas on vessels like this and smaller fishing boats.

The small group of intrepid travelers about to board the Good Shepherd

There is no doubt that the whole way of life is substantially different for Shetlanders, and the islanders in particular. There will be the relative lack of stress compared to the lives most of us lead, but in a community of 60 or 80 people in a remote location there is also little privacy and an underlying need to get along, be a part of the community, and not be too intrusive in to the lives of others.

The travelers on our last day together on Fair Isle

Mags showed me a job posting for a District Nurse on the island of Foula. 29 residents, a house and office provided and about $50K a year. There would be days when that might sound attractive, but the responsibilities are huge as there is no doctor, and you have to deal with the crisis and determine when to call the Coastguard helicopter to evacuate a sick or injured person. The summer days are nearly endless, but the winter nights are equally long. I think I could manage periods of solitude, and we could all deal with reduced stress, but I think I would not be well suited to living there on a long-term basis.

Great to visit and I will be back but maybe too remote for the long term.

Fair Isle. All sweaters and birds.

Fair Isle is the most remote inhabited community in the UK and lies about half way between the north of Scotland and mainland Shetland. It is about 3.5 miles long and about 1.5.miles wide. There are two lighthouses at the north and south ends and most of the inhabitants live on the south end where the soil is better and you have flatter terrain.

The eastern coast of Fair Isle

Walking up to North Light

The Fair Isle Bird Observatory

Fair Isle is a destination for bird watchers as it is on a migratory route and is remote enough to be safe for most birds. We stayed at the Fair Isle Bird Observatory that was built (to replace the previous building) in 2010. It is a fantastic place to stay. Modern amenities and a hostel atmosphere (no room keys and most stuff on the “honor” system.)

There are a couple of other places to stay but they have limited availability. The Observatory is by far and away the biggest place (by any measure) on the island.

Looking down towards the South light over the crofts that cover the south of the island

We caught the plane from Tingwall for the 25 minute flight with three others, one of whom was an 18 (just) year old islander who did not have much to say as he was recovering from celebrating his coming of age with his friends in Lerwick and was coming home for a celebration with his family.

A tombolo. A narrow strip of land that connects an island with the mainland. There are several examples in

Our pilot Marshall grew up on Shetland and always wanted to return and fly the Islanders to the islands. Mags and I had decided that we would take an additional round trip to Sumburgh, the main Shetland airport. The Islander service only goes there once a week from anywhere and it happens to be from Fair Isle.

Short finals at Fair Isle. A short but wide runway.

ILS approach in to Sumburgh

I was asked in Tingwall if I would like to sit in the front right seat. Silly question!

We took off and flew directly south with a small detour to look at a tombolo, which is basically a very narrow strip of land that connects an island to the mainland.

I also asked Marshall about the length of the Fair Isle runway and was informed “long enough. It is like landing at Heathrow compared to the other airstrips we use”

The strip is long enough and also very wide, I estimate it is 100m wide with the marked area being about 50m wide. We landed and taxied in to see Lachlan’s family waving enthusiastically (he is the 18 year old) as they had not seen him in a month or so.

The Islander loads to return to Tingwall

Fair Isle Terminal One!

We off loaded everyone except Mags and me, and loaded two others who were leaving Fair Isle and took off.

All commercial pilots have to maintain recent experience in instrument flying and Marshall announced that he would take a few extra minutes to fly an instrument approach in to Sumburgh. I suspect he chose to do so for my benefit and it certainly added to my enjoyment of the trip. This is typical of the courtesy shown by most people on Shetland and our whole experience has been very positive. They are not an outwardly emotional people but they have good hearts, good values and a willingness to help those that show they will help themselves.

We stopped in Sumburgh and then returned to Fair Isle in the early afternoon.

After getting settled in we decided on a walk up to the “North Light”. The island is only 3.5 miles long so it was about a mile or so each way. There is an excellent road and we all took the walk and then another after dinner down to the South Light which was a good bit further. We think we walked more than 7 miles that day.

The island cemetery looking south

More on the Observatory and other adventures in the next post.

Out Skerries Shetland. As far east as you can go!

Late last year (maybe late October or so) Steve and Alison had taken a weekend trip to Out Skerries which are a group of islands about 12 miles off the mainland (that is Shetland mainland not mainland Scotland) and is accessible by ferry most days or by air about 4 times a week. The population is around 80 people and many have lived there all their lives. I would think that nearly all had ventured off the island at some point but many would not have ventured further than Lerwick or other islands generally to visit family or friends or most likely for a wedding. The weddings can go on for a few days and that can easily stretch in to a week if the weather prevents their return home. I understand that most weddings are in the early summer to minimize the effect of weather but it is omnipresent!
Out Skerries is as far east as you can go in the UK, so we added that to the list after visiting Point Udall on St Croix last November. It is the most easterly point in the US.

The Shetland Island Council maintains essential air service to several outer islands and they operate (via a company called Directflight) two BN Islander aircraft (twin engine, high wing fixed landing gear, a rugged airplane with good short field performance).

Looking east on the short (380m) Skerries gravel runway. The house on the left is where we stayed

Islander on short finals just past the lighthouse

 Alison had booked our tickets previously and we showed up about an hour before the flight, returned our rental car (by calling them and letting them know it was back). They operate out of Tingwall airport that is smaller than the main Shetland airport and the two Islanders seem to be the only aircraft based there.

This is really more like a taxi service, and when we announced who we were the gentleman (who turned out to be one of the pilots) said that we could go early if we liked, as we were the only passengers!

We boarded and it was then discovered that we had some freight to load. This actually was a small plastic bag of some medication but obviously important to the recipient. We were informed that the flight would be 12 minutes at 1000 ft.

It was a fantastic clear day and visibility was unlimited, unusual for Shetland I suspect. We could see Out Skerries as soon as we reached 1000 ft. This particular flight will stop at another strip (Walsay) on the way as needed, but obviously we made no stop on this flight. When we were in the Caribbean we landed on Saba where the runway was 390m, and the pilot, Quentin who is from Botswana told me that Out Skerries is 380m and a gravel runway.

We landed to the west and the “Terminal building” which actually housed the fire truck was at the east end. The airstrip is fenced presumably so sheep do not wander onto the strip but there are stiles to cross the fences for walkers when planes are not landing (see stern notices). Mags had asked Steve where the house we had rented was, and was told, “it is near the ferry terminal”, which was not a lie as the ferry terminal was a 3 minute walk away. What he had purposely not said was that the house was literally across the fence from the runway and “terminal”. It had all been an elaborate plot to surprise me with the location and I fell for it, as did Mags who did not know either. There were many on the island that knew and enjoyed the fun. They had gone as far as to hide their car so as to not give the location away.

So a walk of about 20m to our rental house and a good laugh all around.

Harbor view

Out Skerries consists of two main islands connected by a short narrow bridge, and has about 2 miles of paved roads. There are several smaller islands that can be reached by boat, and one of them is the location of the lighthouse. It is one of about 140 lighthouses built in the late 1700 and 1800s to try and keep shipping away from dangerous rocks. Originally all were manned but are now all automatic and the Skerries light was converted in the ‘70s I believe.

Lighthouses are a whole new subject but have become something of interest to me over the last year or so.

Skerries has two small shops with one of them serving as the Post Office also, a small school with about 5 students right now, a nice well protected harbor and not a whole lot else.

We rented the only self-catered home on the island and there is one B&B that can host 6 guests. This would include people coming to the islands for work (builders etc).

The house we are in has two bedrooms and has been remodeled in the last couple of years. It has been very well done and is a beautiful house to stay in with a great view.

Inside our cozy home

Needless to say it is not a huge tourist destination but has a reputation as a great place for bird watching and if you want to get away from it all this would be the place!

We have taken a couple of good walks, one the afternoon we arrived up the hill behind the house and a longer walk yesterday almost to the far end of the other island. That walk was maybe 4 miles in total but across rough grass and rocky fields so not done at a fast pace by any means.

Alison Steve and Mags on our walk

Salmon farming brings much needed cash to Skerries

The weather has been fantastic with temperatures around 15-18C and blue skies and a light breeze. I believe that the weather here can be horrendous with severe gales and driving rain, and that coupled with very short days in the winter could be depressing in a hurry. I know that there are problems with alcohol and drugs on Shetland in general but it is tough to believe that either would be tolerated here for very long as close as the community is.

I understand that there is one couple (incomers I believe they are called and that includes people from mainland Shetland) who do not socialize at all but pretty much everyone else does and there seems to be an impromptu gathering at the small store by the harbor when the ferry arrives with fresh bread and milk. We were a part of that yesterday and met many of the families.

There is one lady Anna Henderson who is the matriarch of the island, and was actually born on mainland Shetland but came home at 10 days old and has lived here ever since. I estimate she is in her late 70s and has a home that overlooks the whole of the inhabited part of the islands. She has kids, grandkids and just recently a great grand daughter.

We met Ethan, one of the grandkids on a couple of occasions. Mags met him at school and we saw him again at the milk and bread gathering, and as we walked up to visit with Anna. He had just “inherited” a small shed (maybe 1.5m square) from the District (Community) nurse who had just left for another job. She had used it for her cats as she could not keep them in her (community owned) house / surgery/ Dr office. I am sure there was another transaction but Ethan paid the lady with a picture of a Ten pound note cut out of a magazine! He then announced to his Mum that he wanted to have a shed warming party to which several relatives were invited and provided with decorated cup cakes. A property magnate in the making? . Maybe. 

Shetlanders have their own very distinct dialect and even that will vary by location although they will all understand each other. There is also an informal system where they will automatically switch into a more easily understood language when non-Shetlanders (incomers or Southmouths, because they arrived via the South mouth of the Lerwick harbor) are present. It is called “knapping”

The ferry passes the lighthouse headed for the mainland.

A sign about the dangers of rabies. In English, Norwegian, Faeroese, Icelandic and Russian. Go figure

Mens bathroom on Skerries. Specifically for French aristocrats!

Sometimes even that is difficult to comprehend at first but your ear develops quickly although not for the true Shetland dialect.

On our long walk we passed through the community on the other island and then out on to the open grassland that provides rough grazing for the sheep and not a whole lot more.

We had the open sea on one side and the island and harbor on the other with the sea beyond.

Steve suddenly called our attention to something in the sea maybe ½ a mile offshore and after a few second confirmed that it was three orcha (killer) whales. They are often seen in Bluemull sound between Unst and Yell in May and they come to feed on the seal pups. It was a superb site that was over all too quickly.

We were the only visitors on the island but the Thursday plane bought the Doctor and a podiatrist from Walsay for their monthly visit and clinic.

The doctor and podiatrist get off the plane for a day of work

There is a resident District Nurse who has day-to-day responsibility for the health and care of the residents with some excellent phone support from mainland Shetland and also from Aberdeen and Inverness. Seriously ill patients are airlifted out to either Lerwick or Inverness for treatment. It is a high level of responsibility but the system seems to work well for all.

We spent the last evening “visiting” and went to meet Anna the matriarch Her home overlooks the whole of the community and we spent a pleasant time discussing island life and how content she is with it.

Anna and my sister Mags (on the right) enjoying some fresh air and visiting

We also visited the only other accommodation the B and B and met Davy and ??? who are the owners along with Davies’s brother Charlie who lives there too

We were away on the 90-minute ferry ride the next morning along with a young man who was on his way to take his First Mate’s exam in Glasgow. He works on tankers most of the time. We also had the fuel truck that had come in on the morning ferry to replenish stocks of diesel, heating oil and gas (petrol)

Back to mainland Shetland for the night and we are off to Fair Isle tomorrow.

A trip to Shetland. 60 degrees North! The beginning

I am in Shetland as I write this and try to catch up on my blogging.

It is Thursday morning around 6am and all is quiet as I got up while the others are still sleeping. I begins to get light here around 3.30am and we were out for a walk at 10pm last night and it was in a prolonged dusk that finally turned to dark around 11.30. There is still a month to go to the summer solstice so I can see that it will be almost light 24 hours a day. Of course that also means that in December it is dark almost all day!

I arrived in England last week and the plan is to visit Shetland, which is about 80 miles off the north coast of Scotland. I was here at the beginning of my RTW trip last year and it is among the early posts on this blog. The weather is somewhat different now!
I am here with my sister Mags (who will be 70 shortly, but shows no signs of it!) and my recently retired brother Steve and his partner Alison. She is a doctor here in Shetland.
I went to Mags home south of London when I arrived and we started out from there a couple of days later.

The evening I arrived Mags and I visited a friend of hers, Peter who had driven his Land Rover all the way from London to Capetown South Africa last year. He is a Ranger in a Nature Preserve (about 150 acres) about 20 miles out of London. They have had some deliberately set fires that burned about 20 acres of natural heather that will take many years to recover. Anyway he was on fire watch for the evening, but we had a chance to chat and learn about the park and his work.

Friday was a more relaxed day and we spent the evening with Piers, Marion, and their 15 month old daughter Erin. She (Erin) is lovely of course and is crawling and will walk if you hold her hand, but is still a bit wobbly and has no inclination to walk on her own at this point. Her dad did not walk until he was 17 months but then got up and ran almost immediately!

Mags and I left on Saturday by train to go up to Newcastle, about 200 miles north of London where Steve and Alison were staying. They had just arrived back from a week in the southwest of France in the foothills of the Pyrenees. I have details on the place they stayed in and they said it was just fabulous.

The train journey was really good and fast (about 3 hours from London) and a good chance to see some of the English countryside.

On Sunday Steve and I went to his house in Scremerston, which is about 60 miles north of Newcastle, and near Berwick on Tweed, which is the border with Scotland. He has multiple projects going on there with the house and it is a major renovation and changing around of the living space. Some is landscaping and some of the work is inside creating a woodworking shop.

Steve's project house. Ongoing for the last 10 years or so.

Dry stone wall and raised flower beds will add to the privacy

In the afternoon we walked along the coast to the train station (and of course got caught in a rainstorm about half way) and caught the train back to Newcastle.

One of Alison’s daughters Emily was in a choral performance that evening in a large concert hall called the Sage. Let’s just say that it was not my sort of music, but Steve thanked me for coming and “showing solidarity!!” so he knew that it was not for me. They enjoyed it and Emily had fun performing.

Berwick on Tweed. A beautiful border town.

Another train ride on Monday bought us to Aberdeen by lunchtime and we met up with Eileen Cruickshank my Facebook friend and her lovely 5-year-old Sam. He is energetic and full of mischief but a lovely little boy who behaved most of the time.

We ate lunch and took a walk along the seashore and then met her husband and daughter Kristy before heading to the overnight ferry.
This is a serious ferry at about 110 m length and carries trucks, buses and passenger vehicles as well as 600 people. It runs nightly to Orkney (3 times a week)  and Shetland daily

The ferry ride is about 12 hours overnight so Steve had booked cabins. Mags and I shared one and Steve and Alison the other. We had an early night after a very good dinner in the “fancy” dining room on the ferry. Nice Shetland lamb chops for me!

Aberdeen is a major port that supports the oil and gas drilling in the North Sea and there are huge support ships and supplies in the harbor. It is a prosperous town that has been unaffected by the economic turbulence of the last few years

We got to our destination Lerwick on time on Tuesday morning and had developed a plan from there. Steve and Alison went to her place and then back to catch the ferry to Out Skerries. It was another 2 ½ hours on that ferry (much more basic) for them and they then settled in to the rental house they had booked (more on that later)

Mags and I had booked a rental car to pick up at the ferry and our plan was to head north to the islands of Yell and Unst. This involves a 45-minute drive to the Yell ferry at Toft and about a 20-minute ferry ride over toYell. You pay for the Toft ferry, but all the others are free after that, mostly because that is the only way on and off the islands beyond there!

Mags had never been to Shetland, so it was all new to her and I had just crossed Yell on my first (and only other) trip. There are almost no trees and the soil of poor peat-land so even the sheep are scarce.

A view across some of the better farmland

Alison is getting ready to join the medical practice at Mid Yell after working in Lerwick for 2 years, as an associate doctor joining the husband and wife team who have had the practice for the last 13 years or so. The previous associate Naomi is taking over on Unst just to the north and where she lives.

Anyway Alison is provided with a house on Yell as a part of the job so we had somewhere to stay and our first job was to find the house and get the key. We were successful at that.

Way back when Mags was a teenager she had completed a 6-month course at the Agricultural College near Aberdeen, and had completed the class with several Shetland girls. They had not met again since then, which was over 50 years ago. Through a variety of coincidences and a little research Mags had located two of these ladies and had made plans to meet them. Yell has only about 600 residents but they are spread far and wide over the island. It turns out that Mary (one of the ladies) owns the shop in Aywick, one of the multiple small communities and is literally just around the corner from where Alison’s house is located.

Mags and Mary outside the Aywick Shop on Yell. Reunion after more than 50 years

We had expected a small store but this place was a massive emporium with everything available from fresh local bread to buckets of organic chicken manure, gasoline, diesel and kids clothing. She employs 7 people some part time and some family.

Sponsored walks are a worldwide phenomena. Note the subtext at the bottom, the age of the participants and the distance. Tough people!

This chicken is ready for the cold weather with his full length pants!

Just like Habitat. Always looking for donations!

Inside the store

We spent about an hour looking around and chatting and then headed up to Unst, again with a 10-minute ferry crossing. We had to wait for the ferry and there was a very basic looking café by the ferry terminal called “The Wind Dog Café”. We had a bowl of their soup of the day that was a spicy (very) Thai chicken and vegetable soup. Excellent and just what we needed.

Ferry terminal

After the ferry ride we headed up Unst to see the “Unst Bus stop” which is decorated by local supporters and has become known around the world. The current theme (it changes a couple of times a year) is the Tall Ships Race that will be calling at Lerwick in July for about a week.

The original bus shelter was blown down in a gale several years ago and a school age child wrote to the authorities asking for a replacement. The locals then decided to decorate it as a means of saying thank you when the new one was built! A neat story.

We then headed up to the very north of Unst to see the shore station for the Muckle Flugga lighthouse. We had thought that we might have time to hike out to see the light but you really need about 4 hours to make the trip. It was also very windy so we decided to hike part of the way on the Hermaness Peninsular. There were lots of other people doing the same thing, more than I would have thought.

Around 4.30 we headed back down towards the ferry and our second meeting with Mags friends from all those years ago.

Mags and Mairie after our delicious dinner in her home.

From my previous trips and various conversations, Alison had sent me a book written by a Shetlander, Lawrence Tullock about his experiences as an associate light keeper in Scotland in the ‘60s and early ‘70s. He is a Yell man and mentioned in the book that he had to go to Out Skerries for work and only knew one person there, Mairie Mann, who was the District Nurse.  She married Tom Anderson, a Skerries man. Mags read the book after me (as a primer for the Shetland trip) and worked out very quickly that it was the same person! She had talked with her by phone and now we were on our way to meet her and her family!

I have discovered that Shetland is a very tight network of intertwined families and that is more concentrated once you get out on to the islands. It is a wonderfully supportive community and well intentioned, but I think that you would have to grow up in this atmosphere to truly accept it. Neighbors and family are absolutely there for you, but equally you have no personal privacy. To contact Mairie my sister had talked with a lady on Out Skerries with the same name, and she said that it was not she, but she knew who Mags was looking for!

When we arrived at Mairie and Tom’s home we found that it was just up from the café where we had eaten the soup and close to the Gutcher ferry terminal. We were well received and spent a few hours and some wonderful Shetland food trying to catch up with what had happened over the past 50 years or so.

Mairie’s husband Tom had worked as a fisherman and told stories about fishing and visits to Norway. He had a dry sense of humor and was a very interesting man who was able to give us a good insight in to Out Skerries where we were to reunite with Steve and Alison the next day.

We left around 8.30 and headed to Alison’s house in Aywick for the night.

We ran out of time to see what we wanted to see the previous day and so had to backtrack to see the Gloup village Fisherman Memorial. It was off on a side road about 5 miles and commemorated the deaths at sea in July 1891 of 58 sailors and fishermen in a very violent storm.

Gloup Fisherman Memorial

To put that in perspective that was 58 men out of a total population of maybe 1000 people on Yell and a significant portion of the breadwinners. They would go out to sea to fish in 16 ft (about 5m) open rowing boats, probably without any sort of life vests or other safety equipment except a rope or two. The monument listed the names, what boats they were on and the community they were from. It was a very simple memorial erected in 1991, just one hundred years after the tragedy. It is hard to begin to imagine the huge impact on the whole community.

Single lane roads with passing places are the norm on Shetland

On the road back to the main road we saw a lady (a teacher we think) with about 6 kids out for a walk or a field trip. The local primary school was just up the road, and this was probably all the kids from the school!

Lunch stop back on Mainland. Fantastic scenery.

I will do a separate blog piece on schools, and the government structure including health care.

Back on the main road it was about 30 minutes back to the big ferry that took us to the mainland. After a brief stop to drop our bigger bags we headed to Tingwall airport to catch the flight to Out Skerries.