We spent part of our last day in Shetland visiting unst which is just north of yell and takes just a short ferry ride. We headed right to the northern tip of unst to a place called hermness national nature reserve. It took a while to reach but we passed through some nice countryside to get there. We parked up and headed off in search of some puffins. We started walking and after a good 10 minutes it became clear that they might be further away than anticipated. We were knackered and less than a 3rd of the way in!! we carried on walking along a nice purpose made walkway through moorland and bog. We soon noticed several nesting skua’s. as we took the time to look around more and more became apparent. This area is known to have a large breeding colony of skua and it surprised me just how many there were. It also became clear why they are so dark in colour. Its obvious when you see them on the nest that its for camouflage. The pathway flattened out as we approached the cliff. There was a stiff northerly breeze today and we were grateful that Kenny was able to move our dates around (this is very rarely an option as he is so well booked). The scenery was breath taking and the birdlife was impressive. We had seen this from the water for the past two days as we had steamed to muckle flugga but to see it from the top and in bright sunshine put a new angle on it. There may have been loads of birdlife and lots of birds on the nest but the puffins weren’t home which was disappointing. We had a stroll around here and got some pictures before making our way back to the car. When we got back dad had looked in the tourist information box next to the gate and it had a leaflet in it. The leaflet suggests to allow 5 hours to walk around here. Maybe we should have read it before hand!
We got back on the road and headed back south to haroldswick, there is a viking long house and viking longship by the side of the road here. Both are obviously reproductions but they were interesting to have a look around. After that we popped into the village and visited victoria’s tea room (which we had been recommended) we had a cracking bit of cake and various hot beverages while overlooking the bay which was bathed in sun. now we were re-fuelled and convieniently the boat heaven. I wanted to take Stacey here as they have a large selection of Shetland boats here and she has a fibreglass sailing version of one. There was far more than just boats here. It encompasses the history of fishing, human migration and the local community. Entry was very little and worth every penny, it is possible to get a double ticket so you can visit the heritage centre just up the road too but we didn’t have time. We made our way back to cullivoe to collect the fish and head back to lerwick for tonight’s ferry. We had to wait and hour and a quarter for the ferry as the first one didn’t have room for us (even though we arrived before several of the vehicles that did get on) this is worth bearing in mind if you are travelling between islands in a tight schedule. We picked the fish up and headed to lerwick with just enough time to spare for a little ride around the town.
