The Shetland Islands Travel Guide

Introduction

97km (60 miles) N and NE of the Orkneys

The northernmost part of the British Isles, the archipelago of the Shetland Islands comprises some 100 islands that make up 130 sq. km (50 sq. miles) of land. Many are merely islets or rocks, but 17 are inhabited. The major island is called Mainland, as in the Orkneys. This island, on which the capital, Lerwick, is located, is about 89km (55 miles) long and 32km (20 miles) wide. It has been turned into what some critics have called "a gargantuan oil terminal." The Shetlands handle about half of Britain's oil.

The islands also have been called "that long string of peat and gneiss that stands precariously where three seas -- the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, and the Arctic Ocean -- meet." Shetland's fjordlike voes (sheer rock cliffs) make the islands beautiful in both seascape and landscape. But it's a stark beauty, wild and rugged, with windswept moors. Because there are few trees, the landscape at first looks barren. After a while,...