Carefully Selected Scottish Holiday Homes in Beautiful Locations
North Mainland
The North Mainland, stretching more than thirty miles north from the central belt around Lerwick, is wilder than much of Shetland, with almost relentlessly bleak moorland and some rugged and dramatic coastal scenery. You're bound to pass by VOE, as it sits at the main crossroads of the area, but it's easy to miss the picturesque old village, a tight huddle of homes and workshops down below the road around the pier. Set at the head of a deep, sheltered, sea loch, Voe has a Scandinavian appearance, helped by the presence of the Sail Loft, painted in a rich, deep red. The building has been converted into a large hostel (book through Lerwick tourist office; April-Oct); it has hot showers, a kitchen, and a solid-fuel heater in the smaller of the bedrooms. Across the road is the handy Pierhead Restaurant & Bar, a cosy wood-panelled pub with a real fire and occasional live music, which offers good food.
From Voe the main road divides; the northern leg leads to Toft, the ferry terminal for the island of Yell, while the other branch cuts northwest to BRAE, a sprawling settlement expanded in some haste in the 1970s to accommodate the workforce for the huge Sullom Voe Oil Terminal nearby. Brae boasts one of Shetland's finest hotels, Busta House (tel 01806/522506, www.bustahouse.com; £90-110), a lovely laird's house which sits across the bay of Busta Voe from the modern sprawl of Brae. It's worth coming here for a drink or an excellent meal in the hotel's pub-like bar.
The peninsula of Northmavine, to the north of Brae, is connected by the narrow isthmus of Mavis Grind, at which it's said you can throw a stone from the Atlantic to the North Sea. Northmavine is one of the most picturesque areas of Shetland, with its often rugged scenery, magnificent coastline and wide open spaces. HILLSWICK, the main settlement, was once served by the steamers of the North of Scotland, Orkney & Shetland Steam Navigation Company and in the early twentieth century the firm also built the Magnus Bay Hotel, importing it in the form of a timber kit from Norway; it still stands, albeit somewhat altered. Nearer the shore is the much older Hillswick House and, attached to it, Da Böd, once the oldest pub in Shetland, said to have been founded by a German merchant in 1684, now an alternative veggie café and wildlife sanctuary called the Booth (tel 01806/503348; May-Sept).
Just outside Hillswick, a sideroad leads west to the exposed headland of Esha Ness (pronounced "Aysha Ness"), celebrated for its splendid coastline views. Spectacular eroded red granite cliffs are spread out before you as the road climbs away from Hillswick: in the foreground are the stacks known as The Drongs off the Ness of Hillswick. A mile or so south off the main road is the Tangwick Haa Museum (May-Sept Mon-Fri 1-5pm, Sat & Sun 11am-7pm; free), which tells the often moving story of this remote corner of Shetland and its role in the dangerous trade of deep-sea fishing and whaling. To the north the road ends at the Esha Ness Lighthouse, a great place to view the cliffs, stacks and, in rough weather, blowholes of this stretch of coast, and the starting point for an excellent three-hour walk. One of the few places to stay in Esha Ness is Johnnie Notions hostel (April-Oct; book through Lerwick tourist office; no electricity), up a turning north off the main road, in Hamnavoe.
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