Lerwick and Scalloway, Shetland Islands

 

In the summer holidays, Alessio and I managed to get to Scotland for two weeks and we did a mini trip to the Shetland Islands.

We took an overnight ferry from Aberdeen to Lerwick, which takes around 12.5 hours. Due to Covid 19 the ferry was not as busy as normal. Once we arrived, we drove off and found a nice cafe to have breakfast. Then we headed to our apartment to settle in and have a rest, as we didn't´t sleep so well on the ferry. The seas were quite rough and I had a terrible bout of sea-sickness.

The apartment was near the centre and it was very nice too. The couple who owned it were, gave us some touristic suggestions for the island. Eating options were few and far between but we ate dinner twice in the Lerwick Hotel and the food was really fantastic and we also found the cafe Fjara also very good.

Lerwick is the biggest town in the islands, it had some lovely shops and we all bought a number of local produce. If you are a fan of the TV show called Shetland, which is based the books by Ann Cleeves (she also writes the Vera books too). Then you will be interested in the last photo which the outside of Jimmy Perez's house. He is the main detective in the show played by Douglas Henshall, if you haven't seen the show or read the books I would recommend both.

Scalloway is another small place we visited, we visited the castle ruins and a had wee wonder around but as it was Sunday nothing was opened. It was a fleeting visit as there was not too much to see. Scalloway photos start from the colourful houses until the penultimate photo.

I am pleased that I was able to visit the Shetland islands and can add it to a growing list of Scottish islands I have seen.

I will be having one week off again next week and will be staying in Switzerland and doing a few trips with Alessio.

Enjoy the rest of the week

North and South Uist, Outer Hebrides, Scotland

Our summer holidays last year were spent in Scotland and for one week we visited the Outer Hebrides. There are more than 100 islands in this archipelago and 15 of them are inhabited, we visited 8 islands on this trip. They are connected by either causeways, bridges or by ferry.

We left Leverburgh on the Isle of Harris by ferry and arrived in Berneray, we only stopped very briefly, driving over a causeway to arrive on North Uist. We had lunch at Lochmaddy, carried on driving through the island. We stopped a few times to admire the beaches and landscape. Our aim was to get to South Uist and our accommodation for the night. To reach South Uist, we had to drive over another causeway onto Benbecula, with a quick stop for coffee and cake. Finally only one causeway to cross over to reach South Uist and our stay for the evening. Our accommodation was the Orasay Inn, Lochcarman and basically was in the middle of nowhere, but very stunning views. We went for a lovely short walk after our dinner.

The next day we continued our drive down to the bottom of the island and to our final accommodation Polocher Inn. We visited the Kildonan Museum which has lots of information about the cultural, social and domestic history of South Uist. We all found it very interesting place and we had lunch there too.

We stopped off at Askernish Golf Club and my father and Alessio went for a bit of a wonder, myself and my mother stayed at the club for a coffee. The photos of the wildflowers is called the Machair (a Gaelic word) this refers to fertile low-lying grassy plains found on parts of Northwest coastlines of Scotland and Ireland. It was truly beautiful to see and it was everywhere.

The Polocher Inn is situated right on the sea and the view is just stunning, we went for a lovely walk along the beach. The last photo is at this Inn and Alessio looking for shells and stones.  The Inn is very good and would recommend it.

Great Bernera, Scalpay and Eriskay Islands in the Outer Hebrides

Great Bernera

Scalpay

Eriskay

During our trip to the Western Isles we managed to visit 8 islands, and 3 of them were rather small and we only stopped for a small amount of time.

The first was Great Bernera, linked to Isle of Lewis by a bridge we went to see the Iron Age Village at Bosta. We also stopped to walk a little on the beach and collect shells and stones.

The second island was called Scalpay which is connected to Harris by a single track bridge. We did not stay that long as it was raining really hard. We made a short walk to see the Eilean Glass lighthouse and saw it from a far and returned to the car.

The final island was Eriskay which is connected to South Uist by a causeway. It is famous for a few things one being that it is the island which the film Whisky Galore is based on. The ship SS Politician sank off the north east coast of Eriskay with its cargo of 28,000 cases of malt whisky. Much of the cargo was salvaged by the inhabitants. And one of its beaches is where Bonnie Prince Charlie first set foot of Scottish soil on 20th July 1745.

I enjoyed visiting all the these islands and would have liked to have visited more. That will have to be on another visit now!