The wild west of Shetland
Marsali Taylor extols the virtues of her own sailing area
My cruising ground is the west side of Shetland, and I’d recommend it to visiting yachts: gorgeous scenery, wildlife including seabirds, seals and otters, plenty of reasonably priced small marinas, and friendly natives!
Shetland’s a rough cross shape 90 miles long, 40 across at its widest. Each area has its own distinctive character: the south mainland reminds me of the Scottish Lowlands, with rolling pasture and sandy beaches on the west side; up north of us has black volcanic cliffs like the south of Iceland; our west coast has the heather hills and weed-fringed, sheltered bays of the Scottish highlands between sandstone or red granite cliffs.
For yachts sailing from the mainland, it’s easier to come to the west. Robert Anderson, an experienced local sailor who has just celebrated his 80th birthday, gave me these suggestions for a passage to Shetland: “Rather than going up the east coast of Shetland, head from Westray, Orkney’s most north-westerly island, towards to the west side of Shetland. Leaving Westray one hour after HW Dover you could be on the west side of Shetland in a day sail in the summer, avoiding the strong tides and the roosts (tidal races) at North Ronaldsay, Fair Isle and Sumburgh.
You could visit Fair Isle on your way up.”
You can get a bonny anchorage straight away at St Ninian’s Isle, with a bay on each side of the much-photographed sand tombolo. Take a dinghy ashore and you’ll find an excellent small shop at Bigton, or go for a walk on the island and see the ruins of the ancient St Ninian’s Kirk, where Britain’s most spectacular hoard of Pictish silver was unearthed by a schoolboy in 1958.
Alternatively, go straight for Scalloway, Shetland’s ancient capital, a sheltered voe with the channel clearly buoyed. Scalloway was the centre of the Shetland Bus operations in World War II, with a museum and a number of monuments associated with that. There’s another excellent shop with particularly good local meat. To eat out, there’s a hotel, the Fisheries College restaurant and a cafe. You’re also only five miles from the present-day capital, Lerwick. There are regular buses.
For berthing, Scalloway’s boating club is just beside the fisheries college, to port as you enter the bay, and there’s a long visitors’ pontoon. The boating club folk will be able to direct you to where you can get diesel and spares – Scalloway’s still a fishing port.
Heading north from Scalloway, you can reach my own stamping ground of Swarback’s Minn in a day sail – consult the pilot book for the Papa Sound tides and skerries (reefs or rocky islands) – or you can explore the western outback a bit further: Skeld, with a sheltered marina in a
bonny voe, but no shop, a quiet anchorage in Gruting Voe, or Walls, with a public pier or an inner marina, and yet another excellent local shop.
Watch your weather for a detour to Foula, our most remote island 17 miles out in the Atlantic. It has spectacular sea-cliffs wheeling with birds, but little shelter in the small harbour.
Papa Stour, on the north-west corner of the westside, has wonderful sea caves and even tunnels which can be explored in a dinghy in calm weather. Housa Voe, on the east side, has a tricolour light to lead you through the tricky entrance.
Papa has a bonny kirk, now in community ownership, and a replica of a Norse-era stofa (one-room house). There are no polecats on the island, so the birds thrive: oystercatchers, Arctic terns, kittiwakes. West Burrafirth, where the Papa Stour ferry comes from, also has a tricolour light to its sheltered pier. None of these three places have shops, so make sure you stock up with food and fuel.
Now you’re coming into my ‘back garden’. Once you’ve come between the Muckle Roe Light and the Guns of Vementry, three great World War I guns on the isle to starboard, then you’ve a choice of marinas.
Turn right into Aith voe, and you’ll find a leisure centre, with swimming pool, gym and fitness suite, a weekend pub, and another excellent local shop within 200m. If you have children aboard, take them up to Michaelswood to meet the dinosaurs! There are berths for visitors at the end of the marina pontoon, or you can lie at the lifeboat pier. There’s fuel at the pier too, and buses to let you spend the day in Lerwick.
Go straight ahead, dodging the island of Linga and all the lobster pot buoys that surround it, and you’ll come up to Voe. There’s a small marina and pier there, with a restaurant right beside it, and a local shop (excellent) a mile’s walk away.
Go left, and you’ll come up to Brae, the biggest town in the north mainland. The marina is big enough for us to use for dinghy sailing on too-windy days, there’s fuel, and the clubhouse has a bar, regular events, and underfloor heating in the showers. There’s a hardware shop (excellent) within 100m, a large Co-op, a leisure centre, and, further along the road, a garage with local delicacies. There’s a good pub in the town centre, or you could walk or taxi along to Busta House Hotel, Shetland’s oldest still-inhabited house, and very atmospheric. Brae too has buses to Lerwick, so it would be easy to go in and hire a car to explore the land properly: the black cliffs of Eshaness, the archaeological site of Jarlshof, the green hills and ancient kirk of Lunna.
If you fancy anchoring up, I have a couple of favourite places. One is Northra voe, on Vementry Isle, just around the corner from the guns. It’s marked ‘unsurveyed’ on the charts, so go in cautiously, leaving the rock to port. There’s room to anchor, and from there you can climb straight up to the ruins of a Neolithic chambered cairn with a panoramic view. The guns are also worth the walk, or you can take a dinghy to the beach just below them.
My other favourite haven is the South Ham on Muckle Roe. Instead of coming into the Rona, go along the west side of Muckle Roe until you come to the opening, past Strom Ness and Qui Ness, and follow the coast into a sheltered bay with a long pebble beach. Watch out for underwater rocks on the south side of the bay (marked on the chart) – and if a sudden flurry of yachts arrives, it’s the Brae boats having their summer Muckle Roe race. Join us for our picnic!