In the wake of Vikings in the Shetlands
The Shetland Islands are Britain’s most northerly outpost, closer, as the eagle flies, to the Norwegian city of Bergen than Edinburgh, and nearer to Oslo than to London.
There are 16 inhabited islands in this archipelago of 23,000 people, and we’ve called in at its largest one, Shetland, also known as Mainland, on our cruise around the Scottish islands and highlands with Ponant.
Alighting at the fishing harbour town of Scalloway, we pass a lavishly bearded port worker who could easily pass as an extra in the TV show Vikings, then we board a coach and venture out of town, driving by a smattering of neat, brightly coloured houses that wouldn’t look out of place in Bergen and other Scandi towns.
As we make our way south through Mainland, passing glacier-sliced valleys, crofting farms and coastal hamlets with sheep grazing on hillsides, I’m struck by the names on the road signs: Gulberwick, Fladdabister, Skellberry, Boddam, Virkie. It’s reckoned that 95 per cent of Shetland’s place names have their origins in Old Norse.
After all, explains our Shetland guide Gill, these islands were under Nordic rule for more than 600 years, including as part of the Kingdom of Norway, until they fell into Scotland’s realm in AD1469.
English (with a Scottish twang) has long been the main language, but Nordic influences linger in Shetland customs and culture. That’s especially so for Up Helly Aa, a winter fire festival held across the islands — with the biggest spectacle in the capital, Lerwick, on the last Tuesday of January, when a torch-lit procession culminates in the burning of a replica Viking longship.
We’re on Shetland in May, when the temperatures are milder, the days longer, and the skies, waters and cliffs teem with breeding seabirds.
Camera IconShetland guide Gill braves the elements at Jarlshof. Credit: Steve McKenna/The West Australian
Later, we’ll spy puffins, fulmars and kittiwakes by the imposing lighthouse of Sumburgh Head, at Shetland’s southern tip. But first, we stroll with Gill around Jarlshof. Hugging a picturesque bay, it’s not just Shetland’s leading historic attraction, it is, according to Gill, the most important multi-period archaeological site in the whole of Europe, having been settled continuously for 4000 years, with successive civilisations living off fishing and farming, before the site was finally abandoned in the 17th century.
Reaching Jarlshof is part of the fun as, from Virkie, the road traverses the runway of Sumburgh Airport. It’s quiet now but several planes a day arrive here from Aberdeen and Edinburgh, some carrying passengers working in the North Sea oil and gas industry that took root off Shetland — and transformed the economy — in the 1970s.
Camera IconThe remains of the earl’s house dominate the Jarlshof site. Credit: VisitScotland / Kenny Lam/Supplied
The great Scottish writer, Sir Walter Scott, gave the house the title Jarlshof — meaning “Earl’s House” in old Norse — in The Pirate, his 1821 novel, having been inspired by a visit here the previous decade. The name not only stuck but enveloped the whole site, most of which — during Scott’s trip — had been wreathed and hidden in sand that had blown in from the nearby dunes.
It wasn’t until the 1890s that the site was properly exposed when a particularly feisty winter storm cleared away the sand deposits, sparking widespread intrigue and prompting a flurry of archaeological excavations.
After Gill completes her commentary, most of my group shuffle to the site’s visitor centre and gift shop. The rain has stopped now, so I decide to climb the spiral steps leading to a vantage point on the old manor house. I pause up here for a while, inhaling the salty breeze and cherishing the peace and quiet that’s broken ever so slightly by rowdy gulls flapping by. I glance over the rugged Shetland interior and look out to sea, trying to “time travel” again and imagining Viking longships rocking and rolling on the waves.
+ Steve McKenna was a guest of Ponant. They have not influenced or read this story before publication. fact file
+ Ponant has cruises that call in at Shetland, departing Glasgow in May 2025, and costing from around $7000 per person. Fares include wining and dining, excursions and expeditions, and wi-fi among other perks. au.ponant.com + To help plan a trip to Shetland and Scotland, see shetland.org and visitscotland.com
Camera IconScalloway and Scalloway Castle, Mainland, Shetland. Credit: VisitScotland / Paul Tomkins/SuppliedCamera IconJarlshof nestles by the water at the southern tip of Shetland. Credit: Steve McKenna/The West AustralianCamera IconJarlshof is Shetland’s most significant archaeological site. Credit: Steve McKenna/The West AustralianCamera IconJarlshof is Shetland’s most significant archaeological site. Credit: Steve McKenna/The West AustralianCamera IconJarlshof is Shetland’s most significant archaeological site. Credit: Steve McKenna/The West AustralianCamera IconBraewick, Mainland, Shetland. Credit: VisitScotland / Paul Tomkins/The West AustralianCamera IconLeo Suter as Harald and Sam Corlett as Leif in VIkings: Valhalla Credit: TheWestCamera IconFrida Gustavsson as Freydis and Sam Corlett as Leif in Vikings: Valhalla. Credit: BERNARD WALSH/NETFLIX/BERNARD WALSH/NETFLIX
Source link
#wake #Vikings #Shetlands