Day 3 - Tastes of Shetland
Exploring the archaeological richness of the Shetland Islands can work up quite an appetite. Returning to Lerwick from drives around the South Mainland or Westside of the island, pubs and restaurants are plentiful in town, but because our time in Shetland is short, we combine our lunch with a visit to the Shetland Museum.
The Hay's Dock restaurant, located in the new Shetland Museum, overlooks historic Hay's Dock from the second floor of the museum. The restaurant is more than the typical museum café, and serves exquisitely fresh and locally sourced food and beer. The bannocks feature local foods such as smoked salmon or salt pork and are served on floury, scone-like bread. Seafood chowder is similarly as fresh, and is chock full of local fish.
The local beers hail from the Valhalla Brewery on Unst, the northernmost of the Shetland Islands and the most northerly island in Britain. They bear names that reflect the islands' Viking heritage, such as White Wife, Simmer Dim, Sjolmet Stout, and Island Bere. The keg of White Wife had just kicked – apparently a large beer-drinking party had preceded us to the restaurant, but sampling Simmer Dim, Island Bere, and the Stout, we discovered three craft brews with great potential. Simmer Dim is a golden bitter named for the dialectal Shetland words for summertime twilight when the sun hardly sets.
Island Bere is a smoky ale named for "bere," a local barley that is used for baking and, in the Orkneys, for home brewed beer. Valhalla Brewery collaborated with the Agronomy Institute of Orkney College to develop Island Bere as a way to preserve the flavor and heritage of bere barley. Sjolmet Stout is a surprisingly smooth dark ale, named for "sjolmet" – a color found in Shetland cattle that has died out but was once particular to the islands.
After a satisfying lunch, it's time to poke around the museum and re-discover St. Ninian's treasure – the cache of silver found on St. Ninian's isle in the late fifties by a Shetland schoolboy and more recently at the center of a small tempest over where the treasure should reside.
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 (you are here)
Day 3 - Archaeological Mother Lode
Day 3 - Out and about in Lerwick
Day 3 - Lerwick town and harbour
Day 1 - Katherine's first impressions
Day 0 - Outfitting the expedition
Useful links
Shetland Museum
Valhalla Brewery
Added 2008/09/24 @ 11:47:06
Average customer rating
awaiting 5 vote(s)...
Want to learn while on holiday?