Textile Discoveries SHETLAND 2018 GLOBALYELL LTD 3&4 SELLAFIRTH, YELL ZE2 9DG TEL: +44 (0)1957 744 355. EMAIL: [email protected] Shetland Textile Discoveries 2018 touring dates May 9th to 12th June 13th to 16th July 11th to 14th Aug 8th to 11th Sept 12th to 15th The pleasure of finding something new. Join us for a small group tour of Shetland, finding out the history and heritage of textiles, and taking in some of the beautiful scenery, in a place which only a few ever get to visit... ARRIVING IN SHETLAND • TEXTILE DISCOVERIES • Arriving in Shetland • Getting to Shetland There are a few ways to get to the islands and more Introduction information can be found at visit.shetland.org or on the harbour. Visit Scotland site at The first day on any new adventure is always exciting www.visitscotland.com and it is lovely to share it with others. We will arrange The town is easily walkable, although, if you are heading transport from the airport or ferry to your accommodation further out of town, taxis are available from the Victoria Flights are operated by Flybe to settle in before we start the tour and this year we are Pier. There is a ferry across the island of Bressay from as a codeshare with British starting the evening before with a meal so that we can the town centre, and this is a good way to see Lerwick, Airways and Loganair get to know each other a little better. giving you a different view of how the capital has grown. although this may change in A walk along the harbour front past the Lodberries 2018. Please check the above The tour will take in Lerwick but there is so much to curves gently around the base of the hill around which websites for up to date see that there simply is not time to do it all. Here are information. If you are Lerwick has grown, and onto the Knab. Have a look at some of the things we aren’t scheduled to do on the flying from elsewhere into the fine Victorian building that is currently the High tour but which you may enjoy doing if you come up Aberdeen, Edinburgh or School (the new school will be opened in the Autumn of early or stay later than our tour dates. Glasgow before coming up to 2017) as you go past, and a little further on, on the Shetland, check prices on a The main settlement in Shetland and the capital of the grassy Knab, you will be able to see emplacements for ticket all the way through islands, Lerwick is where the majority of the shops and guns that guarded the harbour entrance during the War. from your chosen airline. outlets are. A walk along Commercial Street, “Da Street” The town cemetery is on the Knab, and there is a path Flights arrive in Sumburgh in dialect, and into the Lodberries takes you past yarn at the south end of Shetland. that meanders along the cliff tops before going down to shops, knitwear outlets and galleries, while the charity meet the shoreline at the south end of town. shops can turn up unexpected bargains such as knitting The ferry is a good way to see belts or, occasionally, jumper boards. The Lodberries is the islands in the summer In the town centre months. You can book onto the oldest part of Lerwick, the name meaning houses Northlink at and stores with their own piers, originally built so that Visit Vaila Fine Art where fine organic blankets from the www.northlinkferries.co.uk goods could be unloaded privately owned island of Vaila are sold, and Jamieson’s directly from boats in the Spinning shop for yarns, Bring your walking boots, a raincoat and a jumper. The weather is always fun in Shetland! 3 knitwear and blankets. Have a look at Ninian where local designers sell visitors to see the collection and to speak about textiles with the volunteers knitwear and woven fabrics, and open the drawers in Anderson & Co to see who run the organisation. Both of these are stops on the tour too. knitwear from local makers. Aurora is another shop which has woven and knitted pieces for sale, and for interesting books about Shetland go into the Eating out Shetland Times bookshop. The town has a few restaurants and eateries. Try Hay’s Dock Restaurant in Further out, the Shetland Museum has the Museum, or The Fort Cafe for fish and chips. a fine collection of textiles, with pull- There are other places to eat as well which you will out drawers of lace knitting and Fair One tour day is spent in Lerwick, exploring the find as you explore Lerwick. Good coffee can be Isle, and art featuring the textiles of town and its textiles. If you are out and about, bought at Mareel, the Shetland Museum and at the islands.This is one of the stops on go into the Museum (entrance is free), make Peerie Shop Cafe in town. the tour but it is worth visiting more than once! In the Museum are your way upstairs and pull open the drawers in displays of weave including the the textiles displays. There are some Shetland dialect famous Adies of Voe collection, and astonishing things to find... You may not hear much dialect on “Da Street” but it equipment showing the various stages is an intriguing and wonderful experience to hear of manufacture. Opposite, Mareel, the someone speak with the accent, using words that cinema and music venue features lace simply do not exist in English. For starters, try knitting as patterns of light on the walls. peerie, said “pi” as in piquant, and “ree” as in “real”. Peerie means small. If you are an avid walker, it is worth going the other way, past the Tesco There is a fantastically rich dictionary of dialect which is very hard to find, but supermarket and along the shore. This area of Lerwick has some fine old smaller dictionaries are available at Shetland Times bookshop. houses set back and, if you continue along the seaside road, it eventually Each area of Shetland has its own accent. The island of Yell has a particularly leads onto another grassy area of emplacements. This is a good place to stop strong accent while arguably the strongest of all is from Whalsay. In this and watch boats and ships using the harbour because it overlooks the South brochure, we have used poetry extracts from Christine De Luca, a poet from entrance and the island of Bressay. Shetland who now lives on mainland Scotland. Christine’s poem cycle Makkin Shetland is home to many beautiful and colourful flowers, including three Sooth Aeshaness is particular to one area of Shetland but the three poems species of orchid. The flowers tend to be small and hug the ground to escape together are wonderful evocations of how the landscape affects people and the winds that blow across the land, but there are so many in some months of the art of the islands. There is a translation of the poem at the end of the the year, that they colour the hills. It is worth having a close look at them and booklet. We would like to thank Christine for allowing us to make use of her the wonderful shades that nature boldly puts together. beautiful poem. Out of town centre Finally... A little along the north road out of town, Jamieson and Smith, aka the Wool - On the following pages are itineraries for each day of the tour. Depending on Brokers, has a superb shop, full of enticing yarns and handcrafted articles, weather and circumstances, some of these may change, and the information while on the outskirts, the Textile Museum is open in the summer months for given is not comprehensive. We want to keep some surprises for you! 4 THE BEGINNING OF OUR TOUR Our tours are small - eight people maximum - and we like to think that we are in the business of making friends while we show off our beautiful island home. What better way to do this than with a meal? We meet up for our first night at the Scalloway Hotel, an award-winning restaurant specialising in food from the isles. During the tour we eat in various places such as Frankies’ Fish and Chips, another award-winning eaterie with fantastically fresh seafood, or find one of the pop-up cafes which Shetland specialises in for some soup, sandwiches and cakes, which we call “fancies” and which are always a much anticipated part of each tour. We make sure that vegetarians are catered for, and vegans too if we have notice. If you have any other dietary requirements please let us know and we will do our best to accommodate them. We will try to have a picnic at least once during the tour. It is always an adventure eating outdoors in Shetland so if the weather is simply not co-operating we will have an indoor picnic. Fingers crossed for a good day! • DAY ONE • HOSWICK AND LERWICK Hoswick is a centre of textiles production, continuing a centuries-old tradition of knitwear and weave. A bite to eat at what was once the weaving mill, and then it is back to Lerwick for a visit to the Textile Museum and Jamieson and Smith, the Wool Brokers. Driving down to Hoswick is quick normally but it The final stop for the day is to have something to eat while The itinerary always takes us a while because we keep stopping to we watch the harbour entrance to Lerwick.