South Mainland Shetland Islandslidays

South Mainland Tourist Information

Handy if you're arriving by plane, there is a Tourist Office at Sumburgh Airport. It is open during Airport opening hours and is staffed. Wilsness Terminal, Sumburgh, Shetland, ZE3 9JP. Tel: 08701 999 440. Fax: 01950 460 807. Email: info@visitshetland.com.

There is also a Tourist Information Office in Lerwick and there are Information Points that are updated regularly at all the inter-ferry terminals.

Accommodation is dotted around in the small settlements over the island. The Sumburgh Hotel next to Jarlshof near the airport is probably the biggest hotel on the island. The area around Loch Spiggie has a few B&Bs and the Loch Spiggie Hotel which has a restaurant and also does excellent bar meals. Other pubs and watering holes are around the Sandwick area and on up to Lerwick where the main concentration of accommodation, bars, cafes and restaurants are.

South Mainland Archaeological Sites - Jarlshof and Old Scatness

You can explore several archaeological sites from South Mainland, most notably Jarlshof and Mousa Broch. Just west of the airport along the main A970 road are Old Scatness Broch and Iron Age Village. A broch is an Iron Age tower and many are dotted around Shetland. Excavations have been ongoing since 1995 in a project between Shetland Amenity Trust and Bradford University. Old Scatness Broch is believed to be an Iron Age broch dating back to between 100 BC to AD100. There is also an Iron Age aisled roundhouse and Pictish wheelhouses which date to between AD 600 and AD 900. Guided tours of the site are available during the summer and gradually some of the site is being opened to visitors. Open daily May-Oct except Friday and Saturday 10am-5.30pm. Contact Visitor Services Co-ordinator, Shetland Amenity Trust, Garthspool, Lerwick, Shetland ZE1 0NY. Tel: 01595 694688. Fax: 01595 693956 for further information or check the website links.

Also at Old Scatness is a 19th century bod that was once the home of Betty Mouat who is well known for having set sail on a routine journey to Lerwick to sell knitwear. Tragedy struck when the skipper fell overboard and while the crew tried to save him the boat drifted on leaving Betty alone on the high seas. It is said that nine days later Better was rescued after the ship was wrecked on the Norwegian coast!

Also handy from Sumburgh Airport is Jarlshof that was only discovered around a hundred years ago when violent storms exposed stonework that had been covered by a grassy mound. This revealed a series of buildings dating from the Stone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age, Pictish as well as a Viking village and medieval farmstead. The most amazing thing about Jarlshof is that you can walk around intact buildings some of which are around 1600 years old! You are provided with an audio tour that takes you round the site and helps interpret what you're seeing which is essential as it's a complex site. A guide book is also available from the visitor centre.

The name Jarlshof was given by Sir Walter Scott to the ruins of a 17th house that used to stand on the site and that he used in his novel - The Pirate and it's stuck ever since. Jarlshof is located at Sumburgh Head, 35 kilometres south of Lerwick on the A97 road and is on the National Cycle Network. Open daily April-Sept 9.30am-6.30pm. Oct-Mar open access to the grounds.

Iron Age Archaeological Sites - Mousa Broch

To the east of South Mainland is the small, one mile wide, Mousa Island which is most famous for the 40 foot Mousa Broch, a magnificent example of a 2,000 year old Iron Age broch. Mousa Broch is the only broch in the world to have remained pretty much intact.

It would originally have been built as a refuge from marauding tribes, but now acts as a refuge for storm petrels. They nest within the broch returning under cover of darkness from a day's fishing out on the ocean. You can take a spooky midnight boat trip to hear their calls to their young as they come in to land. It's as if the beach is singing! You can explore the broch yourself although the staircase up to the parapet is a bit dark and torches are provided for visitors if you don't have your own.

Mousa Boat Trips organise crossings from Sandwick and you might be lucky enough to see other wildlife on the way or on the island such as killer whales, common and grey seals, otters, fulmars, black guillemots, great skuas and arctic terns. Watch out for nesting grounds on the island as the birds are likely to dive-bomb you if you stray too close. The island is also a RSPB reserve.

Check Mousa Boat Trips website for more information or ring to check latest sailings. Tom and Cynthia Jamieson, Leebitton, Sandwick, Shetland ZE2 9HP. Tel/Fax: 01950 431367.

St Ninian's Isle

Over from the west coast of South Mainland lies St Ninian's Isle connected to the mainland by a tombolo - a strip of shell sand dramatically hit by Atlantic breakers either side!

The island is uninhabited apart from some sheep. It's most famous for having yielded a treasure chest that was excavated on the site of the 12th century church which is thought to have been built on an earlier Pictish site. In the 1950s treasure was discovered in the form of a larch box buried beneath a slab in the Pictish building s floor. Larch didn't grow here so it's thought it came from mainland Europe. In it a collection of Pictish silver bowls, brooches and a spoon was discovered that date from 800 AD.

The actual treasure is now housed in the Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh with replicas at the Shetland Museum in Lerwick. However, there is currently a campaign to bring the treasure back to the Shetlands.

This is a lovely place to watch the sun set or do a bit of bird watching as black throated divers are often seen fishing in the sea here as well as terns and other seabirds around the cliffs.

South Mainland Wildlife

South Mainland has a concentration of sites important for wildlife. Sumburgh Head is the southernmost tip of Shetland Mainland and in summer is home to thousands of breeding seabirds including puffins, guillemots, shags and fulmars. It is a RSPB reserve with parking and disabled access. It is also where Shetland's first lighthouse, Sumburgh Lighthouse, was built by Robert Stevenson who accompanied Sir Walter Scott to Shetland in 1814.

Mousa Broch is also a RSPB reserve and makes a good wildlife trip even if you're not as interested in the archaeology. Check the details above for boat trips to the Isle of Mousa.

Spiggie Loch is another good birding point which is important for migrating whooper swans and greylag geese that flock here from Iceland in Autumn. Red-throated divers have also been seen here. The loch is also good for trout fishing. Nearby Scousburgh Sands is a popular sheltered beach ideal for bathing.

Further south near Quendale is where the Braer oil tanker came aground in 1993. It was feared it would be disaster for the wildlife of the area but thanks to the crashing action of the waves and hurricane-force winds the gallons of oil was broken up and caused much less damage than feared. You can still see the rusting hull of the tanker just offshore.