SHETLAND: LAND OF THE ‘SIMMER DIM’
The farthest-flung bit of the British Isles is finding fortune in an unlikely pair of exports: crime dramas and great food. It’s also the place to visit for the UK’s longest summer days. Susan Low heads north to find a community whose ship has come in
NORTHERN STARS, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP Fishing is a key island industry; even the ponies get windswept; retro fruit tart; quiet sandy beaches abound; huge scallops at the Scalloway Hotel; the open-all-hours Cake Fridge
Shetland has a stark beauty. One moment the sheep-dotted, heathery hills glow purple in sunshine, blue skies are reflected in an Aegean-hued sea and curving sandy beaches beckon. The next, it’s Scandi Noir-grey and blowing a gale that threatens to blow the bloody doors off.
Place names have an old Norse ring – Beosetter, Skeld, Tresta. The Vikings settled here around 800AD, and their rule didn’t end until 1468 (Shetland only became part of Scotland in 1471). Shetlanders are intensely proud of their Viking heritage – visit in January and you’ll witness the incendiary madness of Up Helly Aa, the annual fire festival that marks the end of Yule. Or come for what Shetlanders call the ‘simmer dim’, from mid-May to mid-July when daylight seems to last forever – a full 19 hours at its peak.
Shetland can cast a bewitching spell. Crime writer Ann Cleeves is just one incomer who found the place hard to leave. She dropped out of university to take a job as a cook at a bird observatory on Fair Isle, where she met her husband. Her novels set on these islands inspired the BBC crime drama series Shetland and have lured many a visitor here, myself included.