Picture yourself on a remote rock in the middle of the North Sea. In January. In the middle of the worst weather for a year. Add howling gales and driving blizzards, impassable roads, cancelled flights and ferries stuck in their harbour.
This was the Shetland Islands two week's back - the UK”s most northerly outcrop lying some 200 miles towards the Pole from Aberdeen - but which simply shrugs and rolls up its sleeves at an environment that would have the rest of the UK plunged into abject submission.
Shetland sits somewhat uneasily between a fiercely proud Viking past and modern Britain - with the latter largely arising from the massive oil boom of the 1970s ” but still regards itself as a distinctly separate entity - even from Scotland.
This physical alienation from the mainland ” Glasgow and Edinburgh are viewed warily as the "the south" ” presents transportation challenges like almost nowhere else in the UK ” and when the weather intervenes as it did recently, not even the heroic efforts of BA franchise, Loganair or Northlink Ferries, can do anything about it. The first time visitor however, may just receive the impression that the hardy islanders rather like the isolation that makes their treeless homeland so inspiring.
Northlink Ferries ” newly installed by the Scottish Executive following Caledonian MacBryne”s tenure on the route ” plies the Shetland Islands capital of Lerwick once-daily with a 12.5 hour night crossing from Aberdeen. Ships, MV Hjaltland and MV Hrossey with capacity for 600 passengers and cars, feature all the frills ferry-goers have come to expect, such as restaurants, bars, cinemas and shops ” they are the A380s of the north sea.
And for those with the cruise bug, Smyril Line operates onward services to the Faroe Islands, Norway, Iceland and Denmark, using the MF Norrona.
Air travellers to Shetland can connect via several UK airports to Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness and Aberdeen, from where Loganair operates using its seven-strong Saab 340 fleet. Loganair recently took over several routes from BA CitiExpress, namely Glasgow to Aberdeen, Benbecula, Isle of Man, Stornoway and Shetland, as well as Sumburgh to Aberdeen. However, the carrier says it will not now operate the Glasgow and Edinburgh to Belfast routes.
Arriving into Shetland”s Sumburgh Airport with Loganair ” a pricey destination into which to fly it has to be said and bizarrely 25 miles from the capital ” does provide for one of the more spectacular arrivals in the UK. If landing on the main 33 runway, the Saab 340 will head straight for the lighthouse on top of Sumburgh Head ” much in the way that aircraft would use the Kai Tak checkerboard in Hong Kong ” before banking hard left to touch down on the short strip.
The oil bonanza of the 70s was Sumburgh”s heyday and there are some poignant pictures of the airport bulging at the seams with Viscounts galore filling the enormous aprons. Today, there are just a handful of arrivals to Britain”s most northerly main airport, although helicopter flights to the outlying oil rigs still make for an interesting addition to scheduled services.
Lerwick does have a nearby airport ” Tingwall ” but only Islanders in the main can land there and lying in a bowl it is prone to fog ” and with no navigational aids this can be tricky. In total the Shetland Islands has six airports including those on Fair Isle, Foula, Whalsay and Out Skerries.
Perhaps the Shetland Islands” most famous event is the annual fire festival of Up Helly Aa ” a relatively modern tradition established in Victorian times ” where the inhabitants celebrate their Viking past with a rampaging evening of ship burning, partying and parading through the streets in a glorious panorama of fancy dress.
Nearly 1,000 people ” including a Viking-clad squad headed by a Guizer (ie, disguise) Jarl gather near the town hall in freezing conditions, light fuel-soaked torches and parade around the town behind fantastically-crafted replica Viking Longship singing traditional songs and trying not to set fire to each others” hair.
At the end of the parade in front of thousands of locals and tourists, the ship is towed into a central park, where all the various squads unite to sing "The Norseman”s Home," before tossing their torches onto the ship, creating a vast conflagration that warms the freezing air for hundreds of yards around.
Each squad ” dressed in anything from the main Viking apparel to seagulls, Indians and Johnny Cash impersonators ” then makes its way around several halls in the town ” generally drinking vast quantities of beer ” to perform their set party pieces. The squad system is resolutely male however, leaving dragoons of women of a certain age to prepare mountains of food, while the single ones sit demurely (or not) waiting to be asked to dance.
To the outsider, the ritualistic nature of the festival may seem from another age, but the islanders remain defiantly proud and are not concerned at all if mainlanders don”t fully understand. And the party goes on so late ” 8am ” that the following day is a public holiday ” allowing Vikings, seagulls and Indians to trudge wearily back through the snow and prepare for the next year.
http://www.loganair.co.uk
http://www.visitshetland.com