Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
SHETLAND PONIES
Shetland is famous for its diminutive
ponies
, but it's still a surprise to find so many of them on
the islands. A local ninth-century carving shows a hooded priest riding a very small pony, but
traditionally they were used as pack animals, and their tails were essential for making fishing nets.
During the Industrial Revolution, Shetland ponies were exported to work in the mines in
England, being the only animals small enough to cope with the low galleries. Shetlands then
became the playthings of the English upper classes (the Queen Mother was patron of the
Shetland Pony Stud-Book Society) and they still enjoy the limelight at the Horse of the Year show.
Lerwick
he focus of Shetland's commercial life,
LERWICK
is home to a third of the islands' total
population. Its sheltered
harbour
is busy with ferries and fishing boats, and oil-rig
supply vessels. In summer, the quayside comes alive with visiting yachts, cruise liners,
historic vessels such as the
Swan
and the occasional tall ship. Behind the old harbour is
the compact town centre, made up of one long main street, Commercial Street; from
here, narrow lanes, known as
closses
, rise westwards to the late Victorian new town.
Leir Vik
(“muddy bay”) was established for the
Dutch
herring fleet in the seventeenth
century. Later, it became a year-round
fishing
centre, and whalers called to pick up
crews en route to the northern hunting grounds. Business was conducted from the
jetties of buildings known as
lodberries
, several of which survive beyond the
Queen's
Hotel
. Lerwick expanded in the Victorian era, and the large houses and grand public
buildings established then still dominate, notably the
Town Hall
. Another period of
rapid growth began during the oil boom of the 1970s, with the farmland to the
southwest disappearing under a suburban sprawl, the town's northern approaches
becoming an industrial estate.
16
Commercial Street
Commercial Street
, Lerwick's narrow, winding, flagstone-clad main street, is set back
one block from the Esplanade. Although the narrow lanes or closses
that connect the
Street to Hillhead are now desirable, it was not so long ago that they were regarded as
slum-like dens of iniquity, from which the better-off escaped to the Victorian new
town laid out on a grid plan to the west.
Fort Charlotte
Commercial St • Daily: June-Sept 9am-10pm; Oct-May 9am-4pm • Free •
T
01856 841815
Commercial Street's northern end is marked by the towering walls of
Fort Charlotte
,
which once stood directly above the beach. Begun for Charles II in 1665, the fort was
attacked and burnt down by the Dutch in August 1673. In the 1780s it was repaired
and named in honour of George III's queen. Since then, it's served as a prison and a
Royal Navy training centre; it's now open to the public, except when used by the
Territorial Army.
Shetland Museum
Hay's Dock • Mon-Sat 10am-5pm, Sun noon-5pm • Free •
T
01595 695057,
W
shetland-museum.org.uk
Lerwick's chief tourist sight is the
Shetland Museum
, housed in a stylishly modern
waterfront building off Commercial Road. he permanent exhibition begins in the
Lower Gallery, where you'll find replicas of the hoard of Pictish silver found at St
Ninian's Isle (see p.566), the Monks Stone, thought to show the arrival of Christianity
in Shetland, and a block of butter, tax payment for the King of Norway, found
preserved in a peat bog. Kids can try grinding flour with a quernstone and visit a dark
