Visiting Shetland and Diving - Aug 07
Watching the lights of Kirkwall twinkling in the distance I felt that familiar buzz of excitement that comes when I’m waiting to board aeroplanes and ferries. It’s the anticipation of all the new sights and sounds to come and sitting beneath the harsh glare of the ferry ports lights I was impatient to be on the move. I had had only a brief visit to Orkney this year, as my goal had been Shetland. Finally boarding and driving my car into what seemed like the very bowels of the ferry I grabbed my pack from the car and went to find somewhere to sleep.
Being the only ferry servicing Shetland from the mainland it is huge, operating from Aberdeen to the main port of Lerwick in the Shetlands, calling in at Orkney on its way. Leaving Kirkwall eleven o’clock at night means that the ferry arrives at its final destination at seven in the morning. So having taken someone’s advice I had my sleeping bag and thermarest in my pack and quickly found a spare bit of floor to sleep on that was reasonably quiet. Cabins can be booked at a price but you might find yourself paying to sleep with some noisy git and end up retreating to one of the lounges anyway so this seemed the best option.
Arriving on a rather grey morning did not show Lerwick at its best and not having had the best nights sleep on the ferry I was keen to find Bob Andersons boat MV Halton. Bob had kindly offered to let me stay on Halton when I arrived as she was tied up for a few days and I was to be diving with him the following week.
The only town on Shetland makes Lerwick the most northerly town in the UK. It is a charming place full of character and is not overrun with tourist attractions and shops. The turret roofs on some of the larger buildings near the harbour certainly give it an unusual and rather unique look.
My vague plan had been to spend a day or so exploring Lerwick and the immediate area and then drive up to the most northerly point on Unst and work my way back. There are a few campsites on the islands but wild camping is permitted which is very convenient and much nicer. However my car starting playing up…..as in… refusing to start (even the auto electrician couldn’t work out why). So with a car I couldn’t rely on not to let me down when I was miles away from anywhere, I decided to stick around Lerwick and just make local forays to various places.
Heading out to East and West Burra I stopped in Scalloway the former capital of Shetland. Home to a small fishing industry it also has its castle.
After reading the information inside I realised why certain features had looked a little familiar. It had been built in 1600 by the very cruel and nasty Patrick Stewart who not only was Lord of Shetland but Earl of Orkney and had used forced labour to build himself another palace in Kirkwall the main town of Orkney, which I had visited only last year.
During WW2 the Norwegian resistance movement operated the Shetland Bus
from Scalloway transporting arms and refugees in fishing boats back and forth across the sea, often at night. They must have felt so vunerable in their small vessels at the mercy of not only the Germans but also the sea itself. Many of these brave souls were lost in their endeavour to help others and there are many reminders around the village, this memorial with the fishing boat sculpture on top being one.
Shetland is a bird watchers paradise and people come from all over the world to visit places like the little Isle of Noss which sits on the east side of Bressay. The whole of the island is a bird sanctuary, the only house being for a warden who lives there part of the year. You get over there via a zodiac, which arrives whenever the warden spots someone waiting on the steps. Unfortunately it was too late in the season for puffins which I adore to watch going in and out of their tunnels stooping over like little old men, wings firmly pinned to their sides, but there was still plenty of other bird life around.
However, it was a few days later that I was to really realise the extent of the bird life on Noss when we stood on the boat looking up at the cliffs beneath the diving and wheeling gannets who seemed to perch and nest on every ledge available.
All of this area is riddled with caves and there is some fabulous diving to be had in this area alone.
What started out as one weeks diving turned into two and I ended up travelling up the east side of Shetland twice. All the way to Out Stack the most northerly bit of land that is the UK.
Many wrecks are within a stones throw of Lerwick but none so much dived as the Glenisla and the Gwaldmena. The Gwladmena is a 928-ton iron steamship sunk in 1917, while the Glenisla at 1263tons is a much larger affair.
Although both lie in over 40m they both sit upright and there is plenty to see on the decks for those who don’t want to go to the seabed.
The massive Latvian registered klondiker Lunokhods – 1 is also a popular dive and very impressive. She dragged her anchors and was blown ashore during a severe storm in 1973. Propelled and thrust by the turbulent sea into a gully under the cliffs her bow then broke away sliding down to rest at just over 40m. Her size makes her a very impressive wreck when viewed from the seabed. After swimming up and into her holds you can follow a trail of debris and wreckage in order to find the stern which still lies stranded in the gully in around 18m of water, just below the Kirkabister lighthouse which marks the entrance to Lerwick harbour.
Some of the dives we did were exploratory. Bob is always seeking out new sites and uses the charts and images of the seabed built up by his computer to identify which sites may reveal a good dive. This combined with his knowledge of the seas around Shetland and an uncanny instinct for what will be good he then gets a group of divers to jump in, investigate know and report back. It’s really exciting just to jump in and to think that in all probability no one has ever dived in that particular place ever before. One of these exploratory site that turned out to be particularly good was Stack of Muckle Head where I was delighted to find a little pogge or hooknose quivering against a wall trying desperately not to be seen, unfortunatley he had chosen red weed to lie on!
Heading towards the most northerly islands in the Shetland group you pass Fetlar and just before reaching Unst come to the wreck of The Jane. This was an iron steamship that ran ashore in July 1923. Not only is she an interesting and attractive wreck she also has a tremendous amount of life growing on and around her.
Many dogfish are obviously residents in the area and you can see them hunting in and around the wreckage or laying in wait cleverly concealing themselves amongst the bits of kelp growing on the seabed. The engine itself is smothered in deadmens fingers and other tiny little creatures like sea spiders and minute sea stars clinging determinedly to the bright yellow and orange fingers.
Further north lies the Toni Chandris a Greek steamship with a cargo of iron ore that ran aground in 1940. Although fairly broken up, with the shot onto the end of the prop shaft it was easy to follow and find many bits of identifiable wreckage.
Still heading north the aim was to spend the night at anchor in the beautiful Burrafirth right at the top of Unst but before that we were to do one of the most scenic dives that I have ever experienced in the UK. Right at the top of Unst is the little rocky outcrop of Muckle Flugga; there is nothing there except a lighthouse. Just to the north of Muckle Flugga, like a full stop marking the end of the UK, is the most northerly piece of British land called Out Stack. This particular site was another of Bobs discoveries and what a gem. Dropping you in on the north side of Out Stack you swim over the kelp and down into the most fantastic gully imaginable. It bottoms out at around 32 m and I couldn’t believe the profusion and range of colours that come from the filter feeding plants jostling for space smothering almost every inch of the gullys walls, indicating that the currents must come whistling through here like a steam train.
The beauty of being on Bobs boat is that he has been around these islands for many years and knows them very well. During the course of the week we stopped over night on several of the islands and each is very different and unique. Stopping overnight at Out Skerries and visiting the ‘retail store’ is quite a different shopping experience.
Also on the island is a post office that’s open occasionally, a ferry that visits once a day and a small plane that takes off and lands in someones garden! There was a menu in the window of the post office but no name of the establishment that might serve such culinary delights and there wasn’t a single pub or hotel in sight or anything that looked like it might serve food. Obviously in this technological age of computers, phones etc the people who live here don’t really feel cut off. But it must have been quite a different story some years ago when the only form of transport on and off the island were the different types of small boats that are unique to Shetland.Sixareen
Another rather bizarre place that Bob knew about was just up the road from the harbour in Balta Sound. Instructed to walk up the road and turn right at the T junction until you got to the bus stop we all gradually strolled up there. Meeting the others coming back with bemused looks on their faces made sense when you saw for yourself this rather wacky set up. Apparently the theme changes, obviously it was yellow on this particular occasion.
So all in all a fabulous couple of weeks……..I dont know how it could have been better really.
More pics
The Shetlands on Halton
March 28th, 2008 at 4:32 pm
A great read, realy enjoyed it. Been to Orkney a few times but now Shetland is on my to do list.