Nesting, Lunnasting & Delting The Wheatear on its rocky perch Mountain Hare still in winter livery
A Location For Wildlife Watching Nesting, Lunnasting & Delting An area of contrasts Much of the coastline offers a natural gallery for observing wildlife, Common and Grey Seals can be seen along the rocky shores. Common Seal pups born in June are able to swim within a few days unlike the Grey Seal pups born in October who stay on the beach Some Useful Information for a month prior to entering the sea. Accommodation: VisitShetland, Lerwick, Lochs and streams provide fresh water, essential for Tel: 08701 999440 coastal Otters to wash the salt from their fur. Soft peat Shops: South Nesting, Vidlin, Voe, banks conceal their holts or hadds, where Otters rest, Brae, Firth shelter and breed. Petrol: South Nesting, Vidlin, Voe, The birdwatching is superb — Gannet, Guillemot, Brae Kittiwake, Fulmar and Puffin can be seen along the Public Toilets: Vidlin, Laxo, Voe, Brae, Toft coastline — while migrant birds such as Pied Wagtails, Places to eat: Voe, Brae, Busta, Mossbank Waxwings, Redwings and various geese alight here in Post Offices: South Nesting, Brae, spring and autumn. Mossbank Local breeding birds include Red-throated Diver, Public Telephones: South Nesting, North Mallard, Arctic Tern, Arctic Skua, Merganser, Nesting, Vidlin, Laxo, Voe, Golden Plover, Oystercatcher, Rock Pipit, Wheatear Brae, Mossbank, Toft and Skylark. Swimming Pool: Brae, Tel: 01806 522321 The high moorland is home to small coveys of Red Churches: South Nesting, North Grouse and the Mountain Hare which changes its Nesting, Vidlin, Lunna, Voe, colour to match the snowy landscape of winter. Brae, Mossbank, Muckle Roe, Gonfirth Doctor and Health Centre: Brae, Tel: 01806 522543 Police Station: Brae, Tel: 01806 522381 Shalder (Oystercatcher)
Blugga (Marsh Marigolds)
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Catfirth Relict trees on the banks of the burn at Catfirth
Constructed in the late 1970s the Sullom Voe Oil Terminal heralded an era of prosperity and change for Shetland There are scenic surprises around every corner, Close by lies the Hoo Stack light warning of the Voder making a pleasant detour from the main A970 road and Climnie reefs in South Nesting Bay. Welcome to Nesting, Lunnasting & Delting over the moors to Voe. The bay has Common and Grey Seals These three districts in central Shetland have Catfirth, the site of a naval air station during the First most of the year. a great variety of scenery and wildlife, from World War, is a fine spot for watching sea ducks and The coast road to North Nesting passes Mountain Hares and Golden Plovers on the waders. The burns at Catfirth and the Quoys, both a prehistoric standing stone at the high moorland to seals and otters along the popular with anglers, have relicts of the woodland Skellister junction and, a little further on, sheltered rocky shores. which covered Shetland thousands of years ago - an ancient settlement and field system Willows, Rowans and one of the islands’ only two below the Loch of Skellister. surviving Hazel trees. From Brettabister a side road leads to the Bold headlands and offlying islets contrast with the Catfirth Haa, now in ruins, was the headland of Neap, the starting point for superb hummocky peninsulas of North and South birthplace of the Shetland poet fine coastal walks out to either the Staney Nesting and the dramatic fjord-like landscape of Dales James Stout Angus. Nearby is the Hog or Stavaness - where Corbies (Ravens) Standing stone at Voe. Just a few miles to the north, Europe’s largest Quoys, home of the legendary 19th and Tammie Nories (Puffins) nest. Skellister exporting oil terminal is tucked into the shore-side century boatbuilder, Dempster Back on the B9075, the road turns inland landscape of Sullom Voe. Laurenson. from the war memorial at Brettabister and climbs the Every week, millions of barrels of oil from the Brent Feeding sheep at Benston Turning right at the shop the road steep hill of the Kirk Ward. For one of the finest views of and Ninian fields are pumped into massive oil tankers leads past the Loch of Benston and the islands stop the car and walk up to the First World bound for refineries world wide and yet, within a few its wild swans to Vassa Voe and on to the promontories War watchtower on top of the hill on your left. This is a minutes drive from the terminal, you can stand in a of Gletness and Eswick. Gletness is one of the most good place to see Red Grouse and Mountain Hares. secluded valley with an unpolluted pebble beach and picturesque corners of Shetland, the hills are packed Over the hill, the hamlet of Billister is another favoured trout stream all to yourself. with field systems, houses and burial cairns from spot for sea trout. A walk along the coast to the east ancient times offering wonderful walking. Gletness is brings you to the granite quarry used to build the Nesting also home to a stud of Shetland Ponies. If you sit laird’s mansion at Symbister on Whalsay. Ten miles north of Lerwick, the ‘Nesting Loop’ side quietly and scan the Isles of Gletness with binoculars The road winds north through Grunnafirth road (B9075) winds through an intricate landscape of you may see Dratsies (Otters). and Dury leaving the district of Nesting and sheltered inlets, scattered crofts and bold headlands. The lighthouse at the Moul of Eswick has a panoramic entering Lunnasting. view from Whalsay and Skerries to Bressay and Noss.
Lower Voe Gletness Ulsta Yell Bigga
Sullom Voe Toft Samphrey Northmavine Oil Terminal Lunna Holm Mossbank Vidlin A968 s Voe Lunnasting rth Fi Lunna Voe Firth A couple of miles north of Dury, the crofting township m Sellaness Linga Ness Sullo of Laxo (from Old Norse lax meaning salmon) lies on Outrabister Scatsta Ayres of Swinister Stanes of Stofast either side of the Laxo Burn, a famous beat for sea Airfield 76 Foraness 90 trout. From Laxo the ferry sails for Whalsay. In strong B Voxter Delting Outdoor Voe south-easterly winds it berths at the village of Vidlin, Centre Hill of es Swinister terminal for the Skerries ferry. Dal Voxter A968 Lunna e to Skerries On your left as you drive towards Vidlin you should Burn of Lunna House visit Andy Robertson’s Cabin at the Wirlie. This Valayre Ferry rout Lunna Mavis Collafirth museum is full to the roof of mementoes, artefacts, Grind Swimming Pool Kirk photographs and curios from Shetland’s long Brae Lunning maritime past. The collection also includes a great Busta House oe Busta V Swining deal of war memorabilia. Hams a of Roe st
Bu Lunnasting d Vidlin lies on the sheltered Vidlin Voe with a marina for A970 local boats at its head. This settlement has an Iron Age Wethersta Muckle Olnafirth Vidlin nafirth g Soun broch buried beside the present Methodist kirk. Ol Kirk Voe Roe Cabin nin Laxo un In the days when most cargo and passengers travelled L by sea, vessels sailing to Lerwick from the North Isles Grobsness B9071 B Sail Loft 90 lsay Minn 75 to Wha and the Westside would call at the natural harbour of ks Dury Voe Ferry route West Lunna Voe, overlooked by Lunna House, the 17th Swarbac Gonfirth century mansion of the Hunter family. Nearby is a Papa Vementry Little watchtower built by the lairds to spy on tenants fishing A9 North 7 offshore - and also to watch out for the Customs. 0 Dury Nesting Billister Stavaness
The Hunters, like most Shetland landowners, Pettawater Grunnafirth were smugglers. Kirk Kirkabister Lunna Kirk is the oldest still Main roads Trout fishing Ward Staney Hog Brettabister used in Shetland, built in Minor roads Birds Neap Nesting War 1753 on the site of an earlier Track Seals Memorial Loch of South Mausoleum.Two inscribed Ferry routes Whales & dolphins Skellister 5 907 Nesting B slabs from the Hunters of Nature reserve Otters Standing Bay Sandwater Stone Lunna’s Tomb were built into Beach Ponies Skellister the porch of the church. The 18th century kirk at Lunna, Cliffs Viewpoint with the watchtower on Catfirth South Historic building Site of interest Quoys Loch of Nesting Lunna is famous as a secret the skyline Benston Moul of Eswick Eswick wartime base for the little Museum Telephone Toilet Air fishing boats which smuggled spies, saboteurs, Broch Leisure Centre ssa Voe radios, ammunition and explosives into German- Va Information Point Böd occupied Norway and brought back refugees from the Gletness Scale 0 1 2 3 4 Gestapo. The story of these heroic and terrifying miles voyages, in midwinter darkness, storms and often under enemy fire, is told in ‘The Shetland Bus’ by David Howarth, the British naval officer who ran the operation from Lunna House. On the north side of Olnafirth, the Sullom Voe is the longest and most sheltered voe (sea Lunna Ness is wonderful walking country, studded ruined Olnafirth Kirk is the inlet) in the islands and, thanks to strict environmental with the ruins of croft houses from the Clearances in burial place of the Adies, controls imposed by Shetland Islands Council and BP, the 19th century. The area teems with wildlife: in lairds of Voe and the Gifford still a wonderful place for birdwatching, despite the summer there is a constant stream of seabirds lairds of Busta. huge terminal handling around 40 million tonnes of oil passing the headland - while migrant birds alight here The parish of Delting has The ruins of the a year. in spring and autumn. A thriving but elusive Otter changed greatly since the old Olnafirth Kirk At Firth, where the road branches off to population has made part of Lunna Ness a Site of discovery of oil off Shetland, but the district still has theToft terminal for Yell, Unst and Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). Much easier to see many unspoiled and beautiful places.The road from Fetlar, the ‘oil boom’ housing estates are Selkies (Common and Grey Seals) hauled out at Voe to the large, modern village of Brae follows overlook ruins across Firth Voe. This colonies on the skerries between the ness and Lunna Olnafirth past modern shellfish farms and an old former crofting township lost 20 local Holm and at the Skerry of Lunning. whaling station from the 1920s. Brae, on the shores of men in the Delting Fishing Disaster Not far away are the the Busta Voe, has good social facilities, including the of 1900. mysterious Stanes of North Mainland Swimming Pool. Heading south back to Voe, the A968 Stofast - a 2,000-tonne Across the water, the 17th century Busta House is climbs the Hill of Swinister to reveal a ‘glacial erratic’ boulder forever associated with the tragedy of 1748, when superb view. The headland of Foraness Delting Disaster split in two by frost. Like the Thomas Gifford’s four sons were drowned while is connected to Swinister by a triple Memorial at Firth nearby Lunning peninsula, rowing back from Wethersta. The eldest son had ayre - enclosing a lagoon, the Houb, this is a heavily glaciated secretly married and his descendants were embroiled a designated SSSI where the tree remnants and landscape with eerily- in a disputed inheritance - with legal costs which pollen found in the submerged peat indicates that shaped rocks associated eventually bankrupted the estate. large areas of Shetland were once covered by a layer with the trows of Shetland Beyond Busta is the island of Muckle Roe, linked to of thick scrub. The Stanes of Stofast folklore. the mainland by a bridge. The Hams of Roe, a There is one more side road before Voe - a steep climb Delting deserted settlement set among spectacular red over the Easter Hill of Dale brings you to the secluded granite cliffs at the north end of the island, is a hamlet of Collafirth and a landscape little changed for The B9071 road from Vidlin rejoins the main A970 at favourite destination for walkers. Just outside Brae, hundreds of years - less than five miles, as the crow the village of Voe, its trees and bushes sheltered on the B9076 to Sullom Voe, a former manse has been flies, from the huge tankers and gas flares of the among hills at the head of Olnafirth. At the pier the old converted into the Voxter Outdoor Centre. A delightful Sullom Voe Terminal. sail loft is now a camping böd. The attractive cluster of walk up the Burn of Valayre from the Voxter Quarry, old buildings here grew up around the 19th century reveals a hidden valley where native trees form part of merchant firm of T.M. Adie & Sons, involved in fishing, a Millennium Forest project. hosiery and tweed.
Pre-war Busta Ayres of Swinister
The Hams of Roe