Day 3 - Lerwick Town and Harbour
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Sailing into Lerwick harbour, the paradoxes of this northern corner of Scotland become immediately apparent. The Shetland Islands are a small region, but the islands themselves are numerous, and the landscapes are vast, green, and dramatic. The sky is not small here – neither are the cliffs of black rock that reach around bays dotted with seabirds and seals. A pilot boat guides the ship to harbour as it slips past green hillsides with sloping churches and graveyards that look as if they might fall into the sea.
We see seals as the ship's tenders take us into the quay at Lerwick. They poke whiskered noses above the water and notice us, but just for a moment before they leave.
Lerwick, Shetland's capital since the 17th century, is the most northern town in Great Britain and has long been a centre of the fishing industry in the North Sea. The town is also the gateway for ferries to the rest of Shetland and to Scotland and for cargo ships, ocean liners, and other large vessels. The Shetland Islands have no shortage of waterfront property; nowhere on this North Sea archipelago is more than five kilometres from the ocean. Water has shaped the economy here since the Bronze and Iron Ages. In more recent history, abundant fishing of herring, mackerel, cod, ling, and tusk made Lerwick a powerful fisheries economy in the early 1900s. Now, many sailors go to the sea on pilot boats, tug boats, and other working vessels to support a quickly growing oil and gas industry.
Alastair, our driver and unofficial guide, has lived in Shetland for nearly thirty years, since he was four years old. His father came to Shetland to work on a peat bog. When someone in our party asks whether the Shetland Islands are part of Scotland (they officially are), Alastair's answer is a little less clear, and we learn that the islands were mortgaged as part of a dowry from the King of Denmark, who controlled both the Shetlands and Norway at the time, to a Scottish king. The Danes tried to get them back for several hundred years, but they were never able to work out the deal. Still, remnants of Viking culture and Norse influence remain strong in the names of towns and villages and in local festivals such as the Up-Helly-Ya festival on the last Tuesday in January. It's difficult to tell whether the Shetland people consider themselves Scots or not.
View interactive map of the voyage
Read the other articles:
Days 7-11 Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and journey's end
Day 5 - Iceland: Tour, Geology and Saga Museum
Day 4 - Cabin Fever on the HIGH Seas
Day 3 - Ruins and Treasure Hoards
Day 3 - Tastes of Shetland
Day 3 - Archaeological Mother Lode
Day 3 - Out and about in Lerwick
Day 3 - Lerwick Town and Harbour (you are here)
Day 1 - Katherine's first impressions
Day 0 - Outfitting the expedition
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