Andy's round the world trip: 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.