Out in the northern seas, visiting Shetland is not like visiting anywhere else in Scotland. For centuries this island archipelago has been influenced by the culture of other northern nations. The Shetland Isles are true to their own unique identity.
Shetland is an exciting destination with a good choice of all kinds of accommodation. Choose your accommodation type here.
The Shetland Isles offer plenty of options, and extraordinary prehistoric sites - some still being excavated. Scotland’s best preserved broch and oldest castle, and many museums.
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Windsurfing, canoeing and sub-aqua, angling, sea angling and golf, and there are at least eight leisure centres and swimming pools - lots of activity options in Shetland.
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The Shetland Isles have an amazing variety of trout fishing and sea angling possibilities. There are clear, fertile machair lochs close to the sea, a vast number of sparkling lochs with feisty trout inland, and seas that provide awesome fishing
There are eight million seabirds around Britain. One million of them are around Shetland. For sheer spectacle, what else needs be said.
Lerwick, from the Norse ‘leir vik’ - mud bay, is the Shetland capital. The Dutch used it as a fishing base and Lerwick began life in the 17th century as a trading post.
Close to the Lerwick-Sumburgh Road by Cunningsburgh, look for the old quarries along the Catpund Burn where the Vikings and earlier peoples carved out bowls from the soft steatite or soapstone.
Catpund Seatite Quarries
Böd (booth) is an old Shetland word whose meanings include trading post or warehouse, as in the 16th-century Bremen Böd on Whalsay, and also store for fishing gear. Camping böds are historic buildings offering basic accommodation for visitors.
Hostels & Bunkhouses in Shetland
