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Post by mucklelaalie on Jan 13, 2007 15:36:07 GMT 1
I hear its been braaly windy up Nort too...
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Post by heimdal on Jan 14, 2007 0:03:03 GMT 1
Someen opened da door and da froad blew right aff da pint I wis haddin ;D
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Post by mucklelaalie on Jan 14, 2007 1:37:46 GMT 1
Dat's no on... weoot da froad, whares da fun?
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Post by mucklelaalie on Jan 15, 2007 0:06:25 GMT 1
If somebody turns da pub TV onto BBC2... you'll be able to watch Shetland! Programme about Up-Helly-Aa
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Post by Pat on Jan 15, 2007 0:11:19 GMT 1
Bairns, bairns!! You leave for five minutes and come back to nothing less than a new pub!! If I'd known I'd have been in earlier and had da clapshot an mutton bar supper. Disappointed not to see reestit mutton on da menu - or hiv I missed it? What about satt piltocks an tatties or fried herring - aa dat fine satty (salty) maet wid get da folk ta drink up Cheers, skol ;D
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Post by Pat on Jan 15, 2007 0:13:02 GMT 1
If somebody turns da pub TV onto BBC2... you'll be able to watch Shetland! Programme about Up-Helly-Aa Done. Sits back with half pint. ;D
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Post by mucklelaalie on Jan 15, 2007 1:21:40 GMT 1
Aafil fine programme... made me feel very haemly. Noo fir (semi) independence, den shetland wid be perfect. Pity da SE are dat scared ta let wis go... no dat dir wid be onything they could do aboot it. But dats anidder discussion... een for before midnight i doobt
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Post by mucklelaalie on Jan 15, 2007 15:33:06 GMT 1
Spotted dis article in somebody's Scotsman dat they left upon da bar ower da weekend. Most hiv been Saturday (13th?). Good read we a early Monday afternoon pint. Nice to read aboot folk understanding da place! Also agree we her conclusion... *insight into poster* "tough but approachable, eccentric, European and absolutely in tune with the elements." ADVERTS for Shetland always show vast reaches of pale northern sky. Until you come yourself, though, you can't really appreciate the soft quality of the light. The summer skies shine with the palest pink, yellow, turquoise and green, changing from moment to moment.
As we roll into Lerwick on the overnight Northlink ferry from Orkney, the roof over the capital of Shetland is an early morning misty blue. It's amazing to realise how far north we have come. The journey from Kirkwall begins at 11pm and you arrive in Lerwick at 7am. We are now nearer to Norway than mainland Scotland.
We have enjoyed the luxury of an overnight cabin so arrive feeling fresh, and after unloading the car on to land opt, as is the custom, to get back on board, to shower and take breakfast.
We are meeting friends with children so decide our first visit should be to the swimming pool in Lerwick. This is not as daft as it sounds. Thanks to a brilliant deal struck between Shetland council and the oil companies in the 1970s, the area has some of the most outstanding leisure services in the country.
So Shetland has more swimming pools per person than any other part of the nation. The one in Lerwick has flumes, a river rapid, an outdoor run, a spa pool, a pool for lane swimming and a fully equipped gym.
In a part of the world which can be dark and cold for many months of the year all these facilities must be a godsend, and something to bear in mind if you are planning a family holiday.
Shetland has received a lot of publicity recently as a must-see holiday spot. Bob Macbeth of Travel GBI, for instance, says: "The absolutely 'in' place at the moment is Shetland."
Coming here for the first time you really notice how different it seems from mainland Scotland. The houses have a kind of well-built Scandinavian feel and there are lots of new wooden buildings with steeply sloping roofs.
Whereas Orkney is rural and craft-oriented, Shetland has more big industry, with oil and large-scale fishing operations. Like Orkney, the landscape is mostly treeless, but where its neighbour is green and lush, Shetland has rolling moorland with tiny alpine flowers.
After a summer night when the sun never really sets, the next day dawns with brilliant blue skies and we drive down to the most southerly point of Shetland Mainland.
On a clear day it's a thrilling journey, with the high road giving us stunning vistas of the crenellated coastline and out to sea. We have amazing views of Mousa Broch, on the tiny island of Mousa, the most complete Iron Age structure in existence. Visitors can still walk right up inside it, but we don't have time to wait for the next boat trip.
Instead we stop for ice-creams at the local café, which is also a museum of whaling, knitting and Second World War radios. For the children the most exciting part of the journey is probably driving over the runway of the airport at Sumburgh in the far south. Just beyond it is Jarlshof, the most famous archeological site in Shetland.
The 17th-century house at Sumburgh was given its name by Sir Walter Scott but it wasn't until the 1940s that the rest of the site was uncovered. Now fully excavated, Jarlshof has the remains of Iron Age houses, a Bronze Age smithy and a Viking settlement. Archeologists believe the site was continually occupied for 4,000 years and buildings from many eras remain.
But that's enough old stones for now, and we head for the beach at Aith, one of the many vast, clean, untouched beaches on Shetland.
The sand is golden, the sea freezing and there isn't an ice-cream van to be seen. But on this sweltering day the beach is full of family groups, chatting, laughing, building sandcastles and enjoying old-fashioned picnics on the sand. If you want unspoilt, uncommercialised seaside you couldn't get much better than this.
Next day it's clear skies again, but blowy, so we decide to venture over to Unst, the most northerly inhabited place in Britain.
The first step is to take the car ferry over to Yell - the trouble is, ferries on to Unst are timed assuming that you will drive across the island at double-quick speed, so most people only see Yell in a blur.
But we do pass the famous Windhouse, the creepy - it's supposedly haunted - farmhouse clinging to a hill, and we pop into the Wind Dog Café, a wonderfully eccentric coffee shop, library and arts venue which provides entertainment for people waiting for the ferry to Unst.
Unst also has its share of eccentricity, with a famous bus stop decorated with different themes throughout the year. During our visit it's "the moon and stars" so the chairs are draped with a cosmic cloth, there's an inflatable alien in residence and a map of the planets on display.
You can tell you are heading further north because you keep seeing signs proclaiming Britain's most northerly shop, Britain's most northerly house, Britain's most northerly beach . . .
And finally we are there, standing on the cliffs behind the disused Air Force base at Saxa Vord, watching the waves breaking on the rocks below Muckle Flugga lighthouse.
Caroline Whitfield, who plans to build Britain's most northerly distillery here, says: "Even on a stunning summer day nature is in control."
And it is amazing, standing up here looking back down over the landscape and forward into the pale, pinky-cream horizon, knowing there is no land between here and the Arctic Circle.
We miss the first boat back but it gives us an excuse to visit David and Jennifer Edmonston, who run an upmarket B&B at Baltasound, where you can stay in a nursery papered with Edwardian découpage.
The Edmonstons show us their kitchen garden, serve up sherry and salmon and tell us how they hope new businesses, such as the distillery, will help regenerate the island.
Next day it's time to leave, but we manage a quick visit to local celebrity, Rosa Stepponova. She writes a column in the Shetland Times about her garden at Tresta, near Bixter.
There's more than a touch of magic in the air here. Rosa's garden is guarded by an angel of the elements sculpted into a wall and somehow in this empty, barren land she has created an oasis of bushes, flowers and little trees.
I make the mistake of asking her if the plants she sells mean she has created "a kind of garden centre".
"I'm allergic to the words 'garden centre'. I just had to go to one on the mainland and I'm only just recovering," she explodes, but with a smile.
As we make our farewells to these wild islands, I'm glad to have met German-born Rosa, because somehow she sums up the spirit of Shetland and its people for me: tough but approachable, eccentric, European and absolutely in tune with the elements.
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Post by georgeg on Jan 15, 2007 15:55:38 GMT 1
Felt a bit lonely, so throught I would try da pub, crivins its near deserted, anyway can I have a wee nip please, and hiv you got anymair peats for da fire, its freezing and wet oot there..
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Post by georgeg on Jan 15, 2007 16:15:14 GMT 1
Jings there run oot o hot pies. doot Iam gaun hame tae make my dinner..mae wee lassie says, your got tae eat faither. ;D
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Post by Pat on Jan 15, 2007 17:10:16 GMT 1
Felt a bit lonely, so throught I would try da pub, crivins its near deserted, anyway can I have a wee nip please, and hiv you got anymair peats for da fire, its freezing and wet oot there.. Hi George At least with a virtual pub you can leave a message and say you were in. Somebody will hopefully reply. I expect we'll need blue clods da night as the mossy paets are just disappearing up the lum!! Pat
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Post by mucklelaalie on Jan 15, 2007 17:13:47 GMT 1
blue clods ir always da answer.
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Post by Pat on Jan 15, 2007 17:16:36 GMT 1
ADVERTS for Shetland always show vast reaches of pale northern sky. Until you come yourself, though, you can't really appreciate the soft quality of the light. The summer skies shine with the palest pink, yellow, turquoise and green, changing from moment to moment. The winter skies are dramatic too. ;D
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Post by Pat on Jan 15, 2007 17:20:02 GMT 1
blue clods ir always da answer. Bairns it is da good ti ken dat some een sae young kens whit a blue clod is. ;D
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Post by mucklelaalie on Jan 15, 2007 17:35:45 GMT 1
lik dis du means... Hiv ta be careful we da blue clod... or da pub'll be renamed Da Magnie's (Not so Restful) Sauna. An beware o da heavy dark broon paet... ferocious dat een, he's like a blue clod in disguise, catastrophic results can ensue, lik hivin ta open da window!
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