Carefully Selected Scottish Holiday Homes in Beautiful Locations
Bressay and Noss
Shielding Lerwick from the full force of the North Sea is the island of Bressay, dominated at its southern end by the conical Ward Hill (744ft) - "da Wart" - and accessible on an hourly car and passenger ferry from Lerwick (takes 5min). The chief reason most visitors pass through Bressay is in order to visit the tiny but spectacular island of Noss - the name means "a point of rock" - just off Bressay's eastern shore. The island was inhabited until World War II but is now given over to sheep farming and is also a National Nature Reserve. Scottish Natural Heritage operates an inflatable as a ferry from the landing stage below the car park at the east side of Bressay (mid-May to Aug daily except Tues & Fri 10am-5pm; takes 2min; £3 return). On the island, the old farmhouse of Gungstie contains a small visitor centre where the warden will give you a free map and guide. Behind the house is an old stud farm for Shetland ponies, which were sent to work in the mines of county Durham in northeast England. The most memorable feature of Noss is its cliffed coastline rising to a peak at the massive 500-foot Noup, home to vast colonies of cliff-nesting gannets, puffins, guillemots, shags, razorbills and fulmars. Be warned: if you stray off the marked path, the great skuas will do their best to intimidate with dive-bombing raids that may hit you hard.
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