Shetland, day 4
| Date | Trip |
| 04.07.26 | The Knab, Lerwick |
| 05.07.26 | Ronas Hill, Lanchestoo, Faan Hill, Sae Breck |
| 06.07.26 | Scalla Field, Hook Kame, Scalloway, Minn Beach, The Ward |
| 07.07.26 | Sumburgh Head, The Compass, Fitful Head, St Ninian’s Isle, Ward of Scousburgh |
| Date | Peak | Height | PF | Location | WCP/FP | MAP |
| 07.07.26 | Sumburgh Head/The Compass | 102m | 99m | Shetland (mainland) | – | MAP |
| 07.07.26 | Jarlshof | – | – | Shetland (mainland) | – | MAP |
| 07.07.26 | Fitful Head | 283m | 270m | Shetland (mainland) | – | MAP |
| 07.07.26 | St Ninian’s Isle | – | – | Shetland (mainland) | – | MAP |
| 07.07.26 | Ward of Scousburgh | 263m | 170m | Shetland (mainland) | – | MAP |
Sumburgh Head/ The Compass
Tuesday: This was our last full day in Shetland, and we wanted to make it count! Anne had her sight on Sumburgh Head in the south, so that’s where we went – from our base in Lerwick.
But – not until Anne had her morning bath outside the hotel, and breakfast at “The new Harbour Café” …
It was nice to return to Sumburgh in OK weather. When we arrived, 3 days earlier, we didn’t see anything.
It was very strange that the main road crossed the airport runway!
Sumburgh Head looked like a cool place! And now I learned that there were puffins there too!
I was very curious about what this place had to offer!
Well, the place clearly offered puffins!
This was just like being back home, at the Runde bird island!
These birds are – bar none – the coolest birds on the planet!
On Runde, because of restrictions, I’ve never seen their nesting caves. Here, you could just drive the car up to the parking and see everything…
And there were a whole lot of other birds too!
But I was only interested in the puffins…
This was a really cool place. I loved it!
The also had a viewpoint building, which would have been totally overcrowded on Runde!
There was a lot of noise from the nearby airport…
But the noise didn’t seem to affect the puffins…
After way too many Puffin pictures, we started to move upwards towards the lighthouse…
Finally, we had reached the lighthouse…
There was supposed to be a souvenir shop here…
But first – a visit to the Café.
There was a nearby top with a prominence of 99m – “The Compass”. I simply had to go there while Anne explored Sumburgh Head!
Anne was OK with being left behind…
The view was deceiving. What I thought was a 5-minute walk turned out to be a longer hike…
Meanwhile – more noise from the airport…
I was almost up now…
… and even more noise…
But eventually, I reached the top.
While looking back on Sumburgh head, I noticed another island – far out in the sea. This could be Horse Island – 2,4km to the southwest. But it looked farther away. Could it be Stonybreck? 38km further south/southwest? Most likely…
After having visited the top of “The Compass”, I returned to Sumburgh Head.
On my way there, I had to stop for more puffin pictures…
One thing that struck me was the difference between the puffins here and those on Runde in Norway. On Runde, most puffins return to the colony in the evening after spending the day collecting food far out at sea. At Sumburgh Head, however, they seemed to be around from early morning onwards.
Perhaps the explanation is simple: around Shetland, the feeding grounds appear to be much closer to the cliffs, allowing the birds to make frequent trips back and forth throughout the day. If so, it is yet another reminder of how closely a puffin colony depends on both a safe nesting site and an plentiful food supply nearby.
What do I really know after just one day of watching puffins? Very little. Perhaps next year the situation will be completely different. But one thing is certain: these beautiful little birds often live surprisingly hard lives, and every successful breeding season depends on finding enough fish in a constantly changing sea.
Then Anne came walking down towards the parking and told me that she wanted to buy souvenirs but had problems with payment. So, we went back up to the souvenir shop, and it turned out to be a “tapping issue”. I paid her bill and then we headed back to the car.
Trip statistics: 4,6km, 250 vertical meters, 1h:39m
Jarlshof
Ater Sumburgh Head, our next stop was just a couple of minutes drive away – Jarlshof.
As I understood it, Jarlshof is a unique archaeological site in the British Isles, with almost 4000 years of continuous settlement.
I tried to imagine life here, around 2000 BC, but I wasn’t able to mentally visualize anything.
As such, the audio guide and information boards were very useful.
I wondered if the tallest ruin had been a broch – a watch/guard tower, similar to the one we saw at Esha Ness.
To some extent, I can mentally visualize village life from the Viking Age and onwards, but these ruins didn’t resemble anything I associated with a Viking village. So perhaps what we saw today was built in the Iron Age?
After some time, I began to lose focus and started photographing other things…
But we had to do the full round, of course…
So when did people stop living here? A laird’s manor house was built on the site during the 16th century. The settlement was abandoned in the early 17th century.
Maybe I should find out why the place got abandoned, but my focus began to fade again. Now, I just wanted to get to the top of the tower and take more pictures…
But I understood that the Jarlshof name is relatively new. Sir Walter Scott called it “Jarlshof” it in the book “The Pirate” (1822). What the site was called earlier is more uncertain. But one name that had been used was “Old House of Sumburgh”
My eyes started wandering toward the nearby Ward of Scousburgh top. We had a couple of other places to go, but would there be time for a hike up there, before calling it a day?
Eventually, we decided to move on. The hill Fitful Head was awaiting!
Fitful Head
Our first top today would be Fitful Head – a characteristic headland west of Quendale, and also the westernmost top in the south of Shetland mainland.
This would not be a hard hike, as there is a road to the very top. But even if driving were allowed, our plan was to hike from Hillwell.
From Sumburgh, we drove ~7km northbound and turn left on Dunrossness Road, leading to Quendale. At Hillwell, we looked for a place to park but didn’t find any.
So, I had to turn to my “bag of tricks”, went over to the nearest house, rang the doorbell and when a woman came out, I said: “We’re going up to Fitful Head, but where can we park so that the locals don’t hate tourists even more?”
I was basing this on experience with locals living near a popular trail, a site or an attraction in general. They’re OK with the tourists in general, but not when it comes to parking without permission on their property.
I’ve done this more times than I can remember and it normally works this way: They try to figure out an option, but then they give up and say, “you can park here”.
So did this woman, and I thanked her so much!
Soon, we were on our way on the road to Fitful Head and learned that the public is not allowed to drive on this road.
Walking along a road isn’t all that fun, but we enjoyed ourselves, looking forward to reaching the top.
After the first hill, the top came into view.
Before the road started climbing towards the top, we had to pass a herd of cattle. We had been warned that there was a bull in the herd, but we couldn’t see it while we passed through the herd.
Less spooky was a young House Sparrow (Passer domesticus, No: Gråspurv).
We deviated from the road a bit to get a glimpse of the cliffs…
… but we returned to the road for the remainder of the hike.
A little bit later, we had the NATS installation on top in view. I really hoped the summit marker was outside the fence.
It was!
It was nice to be here, but we had more things to see and do and left after a few minutes.
We agreed to take an off-trail shortcut, which turned out to be a very bad idea. A Great skua was very clear on that we were not welcome here.
We respected the “request” and quickly moved out its territory. Further down, the bull had to returned to the herd. I tried to look as “casual” as I could, while thinking “please, don’t get up” …
I relaxed after passing the bull. Anne didn’t make any remarks about the bull, but I assume she was not the least interested in going for run, chased by a bull…
Back at Hillwell, we had a long and nice chat with the woman who offered us parking at her house.
She had sheep in the fields and also a small enclosure with lambs who had been abandoned by their mums.
Seeing love and care for animals always makes me happy.
Trip statistics: 7,1km, 330 vertical meters, 1h:51m
St Ninian’s isle
St Ninian’s Isle is a peninsula just west of Bigton and the St Ninian’s tombolo connects the isle to the mainland.
The tombolo – approx. 0,5km long is the largest in the UK. Clearly a place worth visiting!
Anne wanted to walk bare-footed across this tombolo, just like on Minn Beach the day before.
Now the question was – would we be interested in going up to the isle’s high point (53m)? The top was nameless on the maps and so I was not very interested. Nor was Anne.
Time permitted, I would much rather visit Ward of Scousburgh…
So, this visit would purely be a beach walk…
We turned around shortly after having crossed the tombolo.
Holes in the sand made me curious. Are these made by animals? For instance, rabbits? Or are they just erosion holes? Searching the net didn’t provide any clear answers. My vote goes to the rabbits, although the holes were rather small.
“And though the holes were rather small
They had to count them all
Now they know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall”
Another thing that made me curious, if this was a peninsula or island? When the sea is covering the tombolo, it’s an island and when it’s not, it’s a peninsula. But what is the actual definition here? How it looked like when it was surveyed? Or what percentage of time per day the tombolo is covered?
I don’t know. But if the high point had been 100m high, this would have been a life or death question…
OK, the tombolo had been visited. Time to move on. And it seemed that there was time for a quic hike up to Ward of Scousburgh!
Trip statistics: 1,6km, 30 vertical meters, 0h:31m
Ward of Scousburgh
From St Ninian’s isle, we drove 3,5km to the south – to Scousburgh – and turned left on the Vanlop road.
There was a road to the top of this hill as well, and maybe it was open to the public. We didn’t know, but in any case, that was not something I wanted to do. But as we didn’t find any obvious parking in Scousburgh, we drove up to Vanlop and parked in front of container. Anne wanted to sit this one out and could move the car, if need be…
And then I headed upwards. Following the road would be a proper detour, compared to a direct approach, and so after 400m, I left the road and went straight up the hillside.
A little bit later I was on top and wondered what I was looking at. Perhaps “a telecommunications and microwave radio installation” is the correct answer.
I found the summit marker outside the fence and was happy!
I took a couple of panorama pictures before I began my descent…
I also had a good view towards Fitful Head from up here. I took the same route down and was back with Anne 32 minutes after leaving.
Trip statistics: 2,4km, 180 vertical meters, 0h:32m
Lerwick
We were back in Lerwick in good time for dinner at The Dowry, for the 3rd day in a row. Before the dinner, we took our last stroll in Lerwick.
One last picture of our hotel (Queens Hotel)
At the Dowrys, we went for their Fish and Chops (Battered Haddock). I got a mental picture of a fish, badly beaten to its death. But in this case, the word meant: “coated in a liquid mixture before being deep-fried”
The food was delicious. The desserts weren’t bad either. How fortunate we are, able to travel and eat splendid food!
Afterwards, it was time to pack and get ready for our journey back home to Norway the next day. We would be missing Shetland! We would miss the nature, the cliffs, the birds, Lerwick, Commercial Street, the people we met, but we probably not miss our hotel room…
Farewell, Shetland! Until next time…
