Day 4 To Unst and
back
I slept very well last night. I’m not sure if it was the result of the
sleeping pill, or the exercise I got yesterday, or the fact that our hostess
removed my duvet and gave me a top sheet and lightweight blankets but it was a
very good night. Therefore, Sue slept
well too. We arrived for our usual
breakfasts at about 7:15 and were ready and waiting for Sarah McBurnie, our
tour guide at 8:15.
We headed north through Lerwick and up through hills, moors,
peat bogs, and beside lots of voes to the ferry that goes to the island of Yell.
Sarah told us all about historical and geological information related to
everything we passed and that we would see sometime during the tour. She also
told us stories about the Upyella Festival that happens here in January – very
entertaining. She was a very informed tour guide and very personable. After we drove onto the ferry, we got out of
the car and went up to the passenger cabin and then out onto the deck.
Even though we were on the back of the ferry with the
passenger cabin protecting us, the wind was brisk and cold.
We were soon to the island of Yell
which Sarah explained as having a bad reputation. She told us the island was known only for
being on the way to the island
of Unst, the next island
and our destination for the day. So in
other words, there is not much to Yell.
We drove for about a half hour and got to another ferry which was
smaller than the first one. A short time
later we were on Unst, which is the northernmost island of the United Kingdom,
I think.
The landscape was beautiful – big hills, no trees, beautiful
bodies of water, old and new homes, lots of rock walls, and lots and lots of
sheep. This is the time of year when the
lambs, mostly born in May, were being separated from their moms and being sent
to other pastures, either in England
or other parts of Scotland,
to be raised for a year or so before they would be turned into mutton. We watched the dogs in a couple of locations
herd the lambs into smaller and smaller pens to be picked up by trucks to begin
their trip. Those dogs sure do more
quickly and with purpose and the lambs certainly do pay close attention to the
dogs and more as they are supposed to move.
After a little driving, we arrived at Muness Castle,
which is really more like a large house, that was built in the 1500’s. A very important man, Lawrence Bruce, and his
wife lived here but their house servants lived in the houses around the castle. Some of the houses of the workers are still there
and being lived in. Some of those houses
are now ruins. The castle is now a ruin
with no roof or upper floor, but it was still worth touring. We saw several rooms in the castle and Sarah
explained many features that I would not have known about otherwise. She said Bruce sired 25 illegitimate
children. There were several torches
(flashlights) left in a box outside the castle to use inside the totally dark
rooms on the bottom floor and no one bothers them but people do replace them in
the box for the next visitors. The most
noticeable memory of the castle is the low doorways – many of them very about
high enough for me to barely walk through and if you know me, you know I am not
very tall.
After leaving the castle we visited the public toilet. The building was sort of run down, since it
has been battered by many storms right on the edge of the sea, but the inside
was very nice and clean. I would not
enter a toilet that looked like that in Georgia because you could rest
assured that it would not be nice and clean.
We then began the fairly long drive to the Muckle Flugga Lighthouse,
stopping by the post office on the way.
This post office is the northernmost post office in the UK. It was really small, but seemed very
efficient. As the only other customer
was leaving, I asked if I could pet her dog in her car. The let me pet Ava, her mastiff – Ava is a
big dog and I only got licked once by her, such a sweet doggie. Needless to say, she took up the whole back
seat and trunk area.
As we neared the lighthouse, we couldn’t stop taking photos
– the scenery was unimaginably beautiful, breath taking, massive hills that
went sharply down into a very wide ravine which became an inlet in the
sea. The area can not be done justice
with words or photographs – it may be the most beautiful place I’ve ever
seen. The lighthouse itself is on a
small island and I can not imagine how the lightkeepers ever got onto or off
the island because the seas must have been massive and extremely
dangerous. Since the functions of the
lighthouse have now been taken over by electronic equipment, almost no one goes
there anymore. I do hope they continue
to preserve the lighthouse ever if no one visits it because it is so beautiful.
A mile or so up that ravine is the beautiful house where the lighthouse keepers
lived when not on duty and even though no one lives there now, it should also
be preserved. Robert Louis Stevenson’s
father and uncle were the men who designed and help build the lighthouse and
Sarah says that the island of Unst was the inspiration for Treasure
Island since he lived there when he was young. Some of us left the car and walked out onto
the grassy area, with the sheep, to get a closer look. Sarah said she had never done that before but
enjoyed doing it today. We probably
should not have taken that walk because we were sort of near the cliffs – maybe
50 feet away.
Those cliffs dropped several hundred feet to the sea and
rocks below. I’m just glad she stopped
going forward because I was considering tackling her to make her stop. That would have been an interesting sight for
sure. I’m not positive either of us
could have gotten back on our feet again, so I’m really glad she stopped.
This area is also where the RAF had built a huge network of
tunnels for military purposes during the Cold War. This has been closed down now but I bet at
some point in the future, visitors may be able to tour it. Maybe not.
I am going to insert something here before I forget. Sarah explained about the sun rising and
setting here on the Shetlands. In the
summer, you can read a newspaper outside all day long and all night long. The sun is a little dimmer, but it is never
dark. The sun goes low to the horizon in
the northern part of the sky, but never below the horizon. Then it swings all the way around the sky,
going higher in the sky until noon when it begins heading back down toward late
evening. In the winter, the sun rises
about 9 or so and sets about 3 in the afternoon. None of this was new information to me, but
it was sort of strange to listen to someone talk about it when is impacts daily
life every year.
We headed back away from the lighthouse, which was the most
northerly point in the UK,
and went for lunch at Victorias’
Vintage Tea House – the only restaurant on the island. Hard to believe. We had a very nice bowl of carrot soup, ham
or salmon sandwiches with brown bread, salad, coleslaw and either hot tea or
hot chocolate. It was all delicious.
Again, everyone was
very friendly and it was just a very pleasant experience. We then visited a boat museum and a heritage
museum, both of which depicted life how it is and was on Shetland. We saw many beautiful, very very delicate
hand knitted items including children’s sock, christening gowns, and more. We saw many photos and actual tools or
instruments of daily living.
At some point, I got out of the car and petted one of the
Shetland Ponies that was near to the road.
The ponies used to work in the mines here, but are mostly for decoration
these days. They sure are cute.
If you
get a change, watch Socks, the moon walking Shetland Pony, in an advertisement
– YouTube. It’s funny. There is also a funny ad for Spec Savers
about a border collie getting sheared along with the sheep. I was very surprised to find out that the
dogs that work with the sheep are border collies – Shelties are only used to
keep other animals away from growing garden plants and these dogs are very few
and far between.
By the way, as we were driving along, Sarah mentioned that
she was delivering three hand knit scarves to the museum to be sold for her
friend, Mary. We asked to see them and
guess what – we bought them. They are
beautiful. First time on this trip we
went shopping without even going shopping – we are GOOD!!!
We then stopped by the post office to actually mail the
postcards we finished writing at lunch.
We then headed toward the Lund
kirk (church) and cemetery. These are
located right next to a sandy beach out in the middle of nowhere. The grass was lush, deep, and very
green. The oldest tombstone I saw was
from 1902 but I think there were older makers with no dates left on them. The
kirk is now a ruin with no roof but it had a wonderful type of mossy plant covering
it. It was very quiet and serene but the
wind was picking up. Sarah’s mother is
buried then and Sarah plans to be buried there too.
We then began the trek back toward Lerwick. We were running a few minutes late and in
spite of Sarah’s fast driving, we saw the ferry leaving as were pulled up to
the station. We had to wait 30 minutes
or so for the next ferry but we made good use of the time, by talking about
brachs and Jarlshof and other interesting topics. We enjoyed our trip and evidently Sarah did
too, because she said she would take up to see Jarlshof and the Mousa brach
tomorrow after her other tour ends – at least she thinks she can do that. They are located on the south end of the
Shetlands. Today we went to the far
north, we went to the far west on Tuesday and we are staying on the east
side. I think we’ve about covered the
Shetlands!!
Linda found a four-leaf clover. 
We rode the ferry back to Yell, sped across that island and
got to the ferrylanding for the second ferry ride. This is the longer ride but this time we sat
in the car – we were sorta tired. Then
we sped back south toward Lerwick. We
needed to make a stop so Sue could get a photo of the heather. Much of the peat covering we had seen today
was reddish in color and we wanted to see purple. We stopped at one place but the covering
didn’t look very purple, but the photos show it to be very purple –
strange.
We then came back to Lerwick and stopped at the Fort Café
to get fish takeaway. We enjoyed it so
much the other night that we wanted more.
Sarah said it had the best fish and chips in the Shetlands and I agree
with her. We then had another picnic in
our room.
One of the best points of the day was getting back home and
discovering clean clothes on our beds.
We asked Julie if she would wash them and she did. We now owe her 5 pounds (about $8) but it is
worth it in my opinion.
Our plan for tomorrow is to eat breakfast kind of late, be
at the airfield at 11:15, home before 3:00, go with Sarah to the south and
return in time for a music concert in Lerwick before 7:30 tomorrow night. A busy day!!
At some point we have to pack because our flight to the Orkneys takes
off at 7:30 Friday morning!!!!!
We’ve had contact with the Orks (Paula, Phyllis and Sarah)
today and they are on their way. Their plan
is to fly to Amsterdam and then Edinburgh, where they will
spend tomorrow night. Then on Friday,
they will take a small plane to Kirkwall,
Orkney where we will meet up with them.
See you tomorrow!!
