Island 482 - Holm of North Voxter, Shetland

Holm of North Voxter is an unnamed island.  I named it, as it is plenty big enough to count as an island.  It is a low lying tidal island about half way up Aith Voe, close to the hamlet of North Voxter on the east coast of Shetland Mainland.  It is attached to the hamlet of Longwell at low tide by about 100 metres of muddy shingle.  The island is about 100m from north to south by 75m from east to west.

I parked in a large layby at North Voxter and as I was about to set off a local resident drove by and stopped for a chat.  I asked him if it was permissible to visit the island, if it had a name and if the crossing was solid.  He confirmed it would be permissible to visit, that the shingle was solid, said he didn't think it had a name and to be careful as the tide had turned and was now coming in.

It was an easy crossing to the island with just a shallow channel of water to cross.  Holm of North Voxter is ungrazed but someone visits it, as a wild rose had been planted with a guard around it close to an unidentified rusting iron object.  Sea campion, tormentil, iris, thrift and scabious were also growing on the island.

Looking north east - unidentified metal object and wild rose

Looking south down Aith Voe

Looking north towards Longwell

Holm of North Voxter from Longwell

Holm of North Voxter from Longwell

Island 481 - Bur Ness, South Voxter, Shetland

Bur Ness is a small rocky tidal island separated from the hamlet of South Voxter on Shetland Mainland at high tide by about 50 metres of seaweed covered rocks.  The island is round and about 50m in diameter.

I parked in the cemetery car park and then walked round the south side of the cemetery and it was an easy climb down onto the beach and across to the island.  Red campion and thrift were growing on Bur Ness, which is ungrazed, so the grass was very long.  A brough (fort?) is marked on the island on the 1880 25" scale Ordnance Survey map and, although no stones were visible, I could see the round outline of it with a dip in the middle.  However it is not listed on the Canmore National Record of the Historic Environment or on the modern Ordnance Survey map

Looking south west down the east coast of Shetland Mainland from Bur Ness

Looking north towards South Voxter Cemetery

Looking south east towards Mousa from Bur Ness

Looking north east towards South Voxter from Bur Ness

Looking south 

Bur Ness from South Voxter

Island 480 - Long Ayre, Sullom, Shetland

Long Ayre is a relatively new island, but it is shown on the 1881 Ordnance Survey map.  It is located on the north side of Sullom Voe and is a mile north of the village of Sullom on Shetland Mainland. It is really a sand and shingle spit (or ayre as they are known in Shetland).  The ayre has grown in easterly direction across an inlet known as The Houb.  It has grown high enough to be above the high tide level and now has more than enough grass on top of it to graze several sheep. Long Ayre is approximately 100m in diameter.  The island has grown so far east that there is now only a narrow channel separating the eastern end of it from Fugla Ness.  There are strong currents in the channel, as the tide rushes in and out filling and emptying The Houb.

Long Ayre is closely grazed by sheep but there were none present when I visited in early September 2019.  There were also a few clumps of nettles on the island.  There are a couple of telegraph poles on the island and the ayre.  

I accessed Long Ayre by parking at the end of the road at Punds and walking north along the track that leads to a house called Houbans before branching off over some rough grass/bog to reach the landward end of the ayre.  As I was putting my walking boots on a local farmer, who had come to move his sheep from one field to another using a quad bike, stopped for a chat.   I checked with him that it would be permissible to visit Long Ayre and he said it would.

Looking north west across The Houb from the east end of Long Ayre

Looking west towards Taftin Hill from Long Ayre

Looking north west towards a house called Houbans from Long Ayre

Looking west towards Taftin Hill

Looking west down the ayre towards Taftin Hill

Looking east up the spit towards Long Ayre

Shetland Mainland - a look beyond the obvious

The purpose of this blog post is to highlight some of the interesting and/or beautiful places on Shetland Mainland, which are not mentioned in most guidebooks.  These include beaches, gardens, ruined buildings, memorials, burns, unusual geology, coastal cliffs and works of art.  I discovered most of them thanks to Shetland geocachers, who had thoughtfully placed geocaches nearby.

The wording on this plaque at the Bay of Scousburgh is as follows:

"In memory of the crew of the brig 'Starke' shipwrecked in Trae Geo March 1822.  Six members of the crew are buried here."
The grid reference is HU 369 180

Beautiful beach at Bay of Scousburgh

Second World War Lookout at Coubal - looking out over the Bay of Scousburgh 

This is to be found on the east side of the B9122. Grid reference: HU 376 184

World War 2 lookout at Coubal

Prince Olav Slipway, Scalloway

The Shetland Bus was an operation using fishing boats, which sailed between Shetland and Norway during the Second World War, to assist the Norwegian resistance in their fight against Germany, which had occupied Norway in 1940.  They took secret agents, radios, arms and ammunition to Norway and returned to Shetland with refugees.  A base was set up in Lunna on the NE coast of Shetland Mainland in 1941 but it was moved to Scalloway in 1942.  A slipway was built in Scalloway to repair and service the boats.  It was named after Olav, Crown Prince of Norway and he paid a visit to Scalloway in October 1942. Many of the fishing boats were captured, sunk or lost in bad weather, so frrom November 1943 until the end of the war, three US Navy sub-chasers were used instead of fishing boats.

Prince Olav Slipway, Scalloway

Lighthouse at Point of the Pund, Scalloway

Memorial at Tingwall to Alan Young, a Loganair Air Ambulance pilot who was killed in a crash in 1996

Captain Alan Young's memorial plaque at Tingwall

Burial aisle of the Mitchells of West Shore in the graveyard of St Magnus's Church, Tingwall

Notice at Lingness - what's a dug?

Unusual welcome sign at Lingess, South Nesting

Puffins on the wall at North Roe School

The Nort Trow Community Garden at North Roe was originally built as a graveyard.  However after a few bodies had been interred there, it was realised that the heavy clay soil made the site unsuitable to be a graveyard.  The bodies were exhumed and reburied at Sandvoe.  In the late 1990s the former graveyard was turned into a community garden.  Interest dwindled after a few years but was rekindled in 2008 and since then the garden has been looked after and developed by a dedicated small group of volunteers.  The garden is open to the public and is well worth a look around.  

Nort Trow Community Garden

Nort Trow Community Garden

Nort Trow Community Garden

Nort Trow Community Garden

Nort Trow Community Garden

Fairy House, Nort Trow Community Garden

Nort Trow Community Garden

Nort Trow Community Garden

Fish sculpture, Voe

Rock People

These two "rock people" can be found on the road to South Voxter, just off the B9071 Voe to Aith road.  They look like inuksuit, which the Inuit people of Arctic North America build as landmarks.

Lokati Kame

This narrow peninsula and adjacent stack are located on the coastal footpath to Fethaland.

Wick of Breibister

Gunnister Man's Grave

This is located on the unclassified road to Nibon, about 500 metres north west of the junction with the A970. The grid reference is HU 330 732.

Information notice at the Gunnister Man's Grave

Ruined watermill at Lera Voe

Ruined watermill at Skellister

Fish mosaic, New Street, Scalloway

Stone plaque on a house in New Street, Scalloway

The worn inscription on the plaque is a theory about what causes the tides on earth.  It was apparently made by local stonemason and amateur scientist William Johnson in 1910.

Cutch kettles, Scalloway

These were originally used to preserve the sails and nets of fishing boats using bark from an Asian tree.

Fish railings, Scalloway

Scal-Air model plane, Scalloway

Scal-Air Departure Lounge, Scalloway

Beach at Spiggie with a view to the island of Colsay

Ness of Burgi
It is a mile from a small parking area at the end of the road in the village of Scatness south to the Ness of Burgi.  The first part of the walk is very easy, then there is a storm beach to cross, followed by a very narrow rocky section but there is handrail at this point.  The storm beach and the cliffs are stunningly beautiful and on the headland there is an Iron Age blockhouse fort to explore. The grid reference is HU 387 084.

Storm beach near Ness of Burgi

Rocky section of the footpath to the Ness of Burgi - with a handrail

Horse Island from Ness of Burgi

Cairn at the Ness of Burgi with Fitful Head in the background

Iron Age blockhouse fort on the Ness of Burgi

Horse Island from the Iron Age blockhouse fort on the Ness of Burgi

Ness of Burgi with Horse Island in the distance

Stone erected by the side of the road at Scatness by Italian prisoners of war in 1945 to thank the people of Scatness for their kindness

This beautiful walled garden in Grutness was open to the public to raise money for charity on the day I visited in late August 2019.  It is the private garden of a lady who died recently.  I cannot find any mention of it online but it is well worth a visit.  It has been designed as a series of different "rooms" and is mainly a flower garden.

Grutness Garden

Grutness Garden

Grutness Garden

Grutness Garden

Grutness Garden

Stained glass windows in the Northlink Ferry Terminal, Lerwick

If you arrive/depart from Shetland by air or with a car, you are unlikely to see these lovely stained glass windows, which are on display in the main hall of the ferry terminal at Holmsgarth.  

Stained glass window in the Northlink Ferry Terminal, Lerwick

Puffin and Lighthouse mural, Lerwick

Memorial to the Delting Fishing Disaster at Mossbank

22 local fishermen died on 21st December 1900 when they were caught in a sudden and severe gale 20 miles out to sea while fishing for haddock.

Unusual sign, Lerwick

Catfirth Air Station Memorial and Information Board

Catfirth Air Station was built in the winter of 1917.  Seaplanes based here patrolled the eastern side of Shetland tracking and attacking German U-boats.  It was the site of the first flight to Shetland c8th June 1918. The base was never finished, as the First World War ended in November 1918 and the base closed in April 1919.

Quendale Haa

Darth Vader

This chap can be found on the road between Grutness and Sumburgh Head.

Sheep sculpture

This chap is located on the A970 in Northmavine, a mile north of Eela Water.  I have no idea what he is doing there but he has been there for several years.  

Grid reference HU 33812 80896

Boat seat, Hillswick

The Cake Fridge, East Burra Firth, Aith

The Cake Fridge started as an open all hours point of sale for home made cakes and bakes but the owner has now opened a café in the house next to the fridge. 

Hollander's Knowe near Lerwick

This is a mound near Lerwick where Dutch people met to do business transactions.  It is also where, according to legend, a woman heard fairy music.

Unlikely sign to find on a largely treeless island!

This sign is to be found on the road from Vidlin to Lunna

Burn of Weisdale, Kergord

Burn of Lunklet, East Burra Firth

There is a well surfaced footpath leading up the Burn of Lunklet to this waterfall from the B9071 road at the eastern end of East Burra Firth.  There is a small car park a short distance from the start of the footpath. The grid reference for the waterfall is HU 370 574

Quoys Burn, South Nesting (with a tree)

Kergord Plantations at Weisdale

These are the only mature plantations on Shetland and the tallest trees on the archipelago.  There are 7 woods, which cover about 9 acres.  They were planted by Dr George Munro between 1913 and 1920 to act as shelter belts.  The species planted included sycamore, spruce and larch.

Park Hall, Effirth near Bixter

This derelict house was built c1900 using a poured concrete method of construction. It is a listed building.

Memorial to Ove Joensen at Aith Harbour

Sandness

Sandness is at the western end of the A971 road about 7 miles west of Bridge of Walls.  It is well worth the drive, as there is a wide bay giving good views of Papa Stour and a signed walk along the shore.

Geology

The Stones or Stanes of Stofast are a 2,000 tonne glacial erratic boulder, which has been split in two by the action of frost.  They are located just over half a mile from the unclassified road that runs from Lunna to Outrabister.   The start of the "footpath" is signed from a couple of laybys on the road.  However the path doesn't exist for most of the way and it is VERY boggy.  You cannot walk in a straight line if you don't want to get wet feet.  There is a stile across a fence about half way there but it is easy to miss, given the lack of a path to follow.  The views from the stanes are excellent.  Grid reference: HU 510 716

Stones of Stofast

Stones of Stofast

Three unusual white boulders, Scalloway

Walls Boundary Fault

A section of the Walls Boundary Fault can clearly be seen at the beach at the Back of Ollaberry.  This is part of the Great Glen Fault, which extends as far as the west coast of Scotland and is the best exposure of a major shear fault in Britain.  The rocks on opposite sides of the fault have moved long distances in relation to each other.  The major episodes of activity were in the Devonian (370 million years ago) and Middle Jurassic periods (170 million years ago). The headland on the east side of the bay is composed of granite, while the area to the west is schist, which is weaker than granite and has eroded away to form the bay.  It is only a short walk to Back of Ollaberry Beach from Ollaberry Church but it isn't signed.  The grid reference is HU 372 810.

Walls Boundary Fault, Back of Ollaberry

Walls Boundary Fault, Back of Ollaberry

Soapstone or steatite is a type of metamorphic rock. In Shetland it is known as cleber or kleber. Soapstone has a high talc content and is therefore soft and easy to carve. However it can be heated and cooled without shattering and it hardens when exposed to air or heat. Soapstone has been mined at Catpund since prehistoric times but it was the Vikings who made best use of the resource. It was used to make vessels of all shapes and sizes and at various times in history it was also used to make oil lamps, beads, spindle whorls, fishing weights, line sinkers, hearth backing, fire bricks and as a stain remover for woollen clothes. There are more than 20 places on Shetland where soapstone can be found. The majority of these are on Unst, Fetlar and in North Mavine. The Catpund soapstone quarry can be visited by parking in a large layby to the south of Mail in South Mainland and walking west up the Burn of Catpund. There is however no sign to it, although there is an information board when you get there. Chisel marks, blanks for bowls and waste chippings can all be seen. The grid reference is HU 424 270.

Soapstone quarry, Catpund

You can clearly see where bowls have been cut out of the rocks.

Soapstone quarry and the Burn of Catpund