sign in sign up
<<
Home , Bound Skerry, Bruray, Fetlar, Grunay, Housay, Out Skerries

Out Left: Seals on Tamma Right: Taamie Nories at the

Birders’ Paradise Bird life is one of the key factors in drawing people to The friendly isles the islands, and year-round there is a wealth of air- borne interest. During migration, however, all kinds of rarities can descend, albeit briefly, due to the islands’ position as the first landfall for stray birds blown in from the east. In summer sheep and lambs share the Some Useful Information hills with breeding birds. Dunter (Eider Duck), Sandiloo Accommodation: VisitShetland, , (Ringed Plover), Shalder (Oystercatcher), Tirrick (Arctic Tel: 08701 999440 Tern) and gulls. Please try to avoid walking Ferry Booking Office: Out Skerries, Tel: 01806 515226 near Tirrick breeding colonies as they will vigorously defend their eggs and chicks. Air Booking Office: Tingwall Airport Tel: 01595 840246 All kinds of seabirds, otters and Out Skerries, Tel: 01806 515253 seals can be seen from the Shops: and shore. There is a large breeding Fuel: Available on request population of Guillemots and the Public Toilet & Shower: Bruray pier small rocks off the south west Post Office: Housay point, such as the Benelips and Public Telephones: Bruray Filla, are often thronged with seals. Church: Housay The rugged scenery is breathtaking, Swaabie (Great Black- backed Gull) Medical Assistance: Resident Nurse, particularly in the teeth of a gale. Tel: 01806 515225 It is then you can appreciate the special nature of Marina: Visitors’ berths available Skerries and its people, not just surviving on the edge, but thriving. In Skerries you are free to walk anywhere but please remember the country code and close all gates you have opened.

Böd Voe and

Contents copyright protected - please contact Amenity Trust for details. Whilst every effort has been made to ensure the contents are accurate, the funding partners do not accept responsibility for any errors in this leaflet.

The Warmest of Welcomes Out Skerries, Shetland’s most easterly outpost, has a wealth of attractions never to be forgotten — the dramatic scenery, historical interest, outstanding wildlife and, not least, the warm welcome of the Skerries folk. Probably Europe’s best quality salmon Car Ferry, Filla

The first sight of the islands, whether by sea or air, is The Surrounding Sea The Land’s Gifts equally spectacular, entering the narrow harbour Skerries’ identity has been established by the sea. It is Skerries has never been an easy place to glean entrance with its imposing stacks or flying in over the a place full of past seafaring romance and tragedy: survival from the limited amount of land. Cultivation scattered islands dominated by the lighthouse on great sailing ships like the Dutch East Indiaman the is not as intense now as it once was, but Skerries still . Kennemerland and De Liefde, treasure-laden and boasts well preserved rigs. Many of these narrow The dramatic and varied coastline provides a wealth of wrecked in the 17th and 18th centuries, their secrets strips of cultivation are still in use for walking opportunities encompassing beautiful revealed hundreds of years later in rare finds of silver tatties, neeps and carrots. Gone, though, scenery with rugged cliffs, arches, blow-holes, steep and gold on the Skerries shoreline. is the system of rotation called runrig, geos, stacks, long voes and beaches with fascinating Fishing was, historically, the key to a viable community once essential to ensure everyone layers of smooth pebbles. Climb to the top of the becoming established; in the days before powerful received a fair share of quality land. The Bruray Wart, North Wart or South Wart for sweeping motor-driven vessels, these islands provided an planticrubs and kale yards are still in views of the islands and, in the distance, , Yell, essential outpost for Shetland’s haaf fishermen. In evidence although not in use. Sheep are and the Shetland mainland. their small open boats, powered by oars and a single still plentiful, as are their by-products — square sail, they would fish out of sight of land, setting fragrant lamb, the delicacy known as Flowering Sea An Island Community reestit mutton and the wool which Pinks carpet the their lines overnight, with little shelter and only the cliff-tops from A skerry is a rock in the sea or a rocky island and it is warmth of a small, carefully guarded fire. It was Skerries women still turn into the most May to July often assumed that the Out Skerries were so named dangerous, brutal work, but the value of landings was delicate of shawls or attractive, and because of the islands’ remoteness. In fact it stems crucial to the entire Shetland economy. warm, gansies (pullovers). from the word for east, distinguishing Out Fish is still an important industry, with thriving local Skerries from the (meaning west). A Springtime Oasis boats and of course the unique, community-owned Generally, it is simply known as Skerries and fewer salmon farm, famed for its clear water and the fine The very fertile layer of soil which in past days made than 80 people live there, on the bridge-linked islands quality of its fish. the islands productive, now transforms the islands in of Bruray and Housay. Economically, socially, springtime into a surprisingly green oasis. A riot of spiritually, Skerries boasts a community which has wild flowers appear and visitors arriving by air will be always lived for the present and the future. impressed by the carpet of Sea Pinks that grow on the grassy banks and cliff-tops.

Aerial view of the sheltered harbour Recording archaeology in Skerries

Da eela (inshore line fishing) Safe Haven The life of Skerries centres around the extraordinary natural harbour, protected on all sides and turning Böd Voe into a calm Out Skerries lagoon in even the most violent of storms. Historically, this anchorage made Skerries a Hevda desirable haven and was crucial to the Skerries

development of the haaf fishing industry. North Mills Wreck Flat Lamba North h Bruray Stack Wart Wart Cave h Mout Bruray rt Lighthouse No Lang Ayre h e Wreck Vo Mout Bound st st Skerry The Hogg We h Ea Ling rt Böd Voe Beach No Tammie Tyrie’s Battle Grunay Hidey Hol Housay Pund South War Memorial Wart Wreck The Steig Annie Elspeth’s Resting Place

s s e n Böd Voe, looking north west io Paet’s Hoose M Wreck

The open, six-oared used up to the early Dregging Geos years of this century were similar in design to the Shetland Models used nowadays for da eela (inshore Benelip Sound line fishing) during the North summer months. You may Benelip well find someone willing to South Benelip take you out in search of piltocks (saithe) or mackerel, k Ferry to Main roads Trout fishing d and you could be lucky Filla Soun Minor roads Birds enough to be in Skerries for Track Seals

Ferry to Lerwic the annual eela competition, Ferry routes Whales & dolphins when all the local fishermen Filla Nature reserve Otters compete for the biggest Beach Ponies catch. The dance and Visiting boats at the Round Skerries Cliffs Viewpoint Yacht Race supper which follows is one Historic building Site of interest of the year’s highlights, and Museum Telephone you will be made more than Toilet Airstrip welcome. Leisure Centre Information Point Böd Sailing In 1 Scale 0 /4 Welcome too are miles visiting yachtsmen and women. There is plenty of space for anchoring in calm water or War and Peace Dreaming of Treasure visitors’ berths are On the currently uninhabited island of Grunay, once Out on the south-westerly tip of the Point of Mioness, available at the marina. home to the keepers of the now-automated Skerries though, you can dream of treasure, for it was here, in Water, fuel, public lighthouse, tragedy of a different kind is remembered. 1960, in the Dregging Geos, that old Skerries stories toilets, showers and Here a Canadian bomber crashed during World War II. about gold and silver coins being found came home telephone are all A plaque commemorating the event was placed on the to roost. available and easily island in 1990. Swedish visitor A silver ducatoon and a 1711 gold ducat were found, accessible. prompting a mini-treasure hunt. They had come from The annual Round Skerries Yacht Race is another Smugglers and the Press Gang the gold-laden wreck De Liefde, and since then she, enormously enjoyable social occasion, again featuring Shetland’s reputation of having many excellent the Kennemerland and the Danish warship Wrangels music, dancing, eating and drinking at the hall. seamen made the isles an obvious target for the Press Palais have been excavated over many years and are Gang, particularly during the subject of legal protection. Exploring The Heritage the Napoleonic Wars. Naval Skerries remains a popular destination for There are unexpected historical sites to investigate, officers intercepted boats underwater explorers, as well as more casual such as the Battle Pund, on the West Isle. It is thought returning from the whaling beachcombers hoping for the glitter of gold in the that blood feuds were once settled here. Happily, on and entered houses even at sand. Who knows? You may be lucky. this crime-free island, any feuding these days is night. To avoid them, men usually confined to the indoor bowls carpet. often fled to hideouts in the The shores in and around the harbour bear the signs hills or to caves along the Pottery from of Skerries’ fishing heritage: at the North Mills on the shores where they one of the remained in hiding until the many ship- West Isle and the Lang Ayre on Bruray, you can see the wreck sites remains of the lodges lived in by haaf (deep sea) ships had left the area.Some around the A natural arch in Flat Lamba Skerries landmarks remind coastline fishermen during the summer season; by the pier sits Stack on the north-east coast one of the last iron kettles in Shetland, once used to us of these activities. The melt fish livers and later to prepare cutch bark for stone called Annie Elspeth’s coating fishing lines and nets by those same intrepid Resting Place is where a woman stopped, and scanned fishermen. You can still visit the Ling Beach, so called the sea for ships, on her way to deliver food to the men because it was used – indeed constructed artifically for hiding in the Paet’s Hoose on Meoness. Another the purpose of drying fish, which were then exported. hideout on Queyness was called Tammie Tyrie’s Hoidy The Ling Beach is now disused and overgrown, but fish Hol, but has now been washed away by the sea. are still caught and dried on Skerries. However, today Smuggling was once a useful source of additional you are more likely to see fish drying on a washing line. income, and the caves and inlets were handy for storing all kinds of contraband. Skerries’ far-flung easterly position made it a handy isolated landing point for smugglers from Scandinavia and Holland. Piltocks are salted, dried and preserved for use later in the year Majestic underwater scenery

Palm The 1930’s mail boat,