2021: The year to make your move

Locke and Angelina Bell don’t immediately seem like obvious contenders for a move to Shetland. He’s a sculptor and high-end furniture restorer and she’s an early childhood speech therapist – and they live in New York City’s East Village, a quarter known for Beatniks, punks and recent gentrification.

But, in 2021, their dream destination is Shetland. “We’ve been coming to Scotland for years,” says Locke, “and we’ve fallen in love with the people and the culture. With Shetland especially, we fell in love with the sense of community, the likemindedness of the people, and the beautiful austerity of the landscape. We find it liberating, and if we could get visas sorted, we’d move in a heartbeat.”

For Locke, the East Village has become an overpriced shadow of its former self, and even the small town in Virginia where he grew up has lost the sense of community and place that Shetland has held onto. “We know so many people who are moving out of the city and looking for something more connected, rooted and real,” he says. “But so few places in the US have what Shetland has – its authenticity, honesty and sense of place.”

We know so many people who are moving out of the city and looking for something more connected, rooted and real

The Bells are not alone in looking to leave the city for a different kind of life. In the wake of Covid-19, the number of permanent remote workers globally is predicted to double this year – and de-urbanisation is widely predicted to be one of the year’s big trends, as people reassess their lives and priorities, and realise that they no longer need to live in cities to work. Disillusionment with global politics, exacerbated by Covid-19, has led many to seek a different way of life.

Shetland has a compelling case as a place to start a new life in the 2020s. It is safe, family-friendly, and driven by community, nature and sustainability, especially now that it is transitioning from oil and gas to renewable forms of energy. And while many remote communities suffer from a lack of jobs and opportunities, Shetland has a broad-base economy, with strong public and private sectors, and a wide range of job opportunities – whether you’re a nurse, teacher or public sector worker, or want to work in aquaculture, green energy or engineering.

With many of these jobs comes the chance to make a tangible difference. This year, community development expert Sarah Kersey is set to move from Exmouth in Devon to Cullivoe, a community on the North Isle of Yell. She’s taking up a job as development manager at the North Yell Development Council, with a particular focus on the redevelopment of the Cullivoe pier, which is already a buzzing hub but is due to add new office spaces, a business centre and a marina for visiting boats.

“I’ve worked a lot with small communities, and I was so impressed with what this particular set of people have achieved already, and their ambitions for the future,” says Sarah, who will also be overseeing the local-led Garth windfarm, and looking at more ways to benefit the local community. “It’s like that quote from [American anthropologist] Margaret Mead: ‘Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.’ Communities are really about the people in them.”

I’ve worked a lot with small communities, and I was so impressed with what this particular set of people have achieved already, and their ambitions for the future

In Cullivoe, like much of Shetland, incomers can expect a warm welcome. As mussel farmer Christoper Thomason puts it: “New people are always welcomed to the community with open arms. Especially young families, they bring so much to a place like ours, and help to support the local schools and the local economy.”

For Sarah, the appeal isn’t just the chance to become an integral part of a small, welcoming community, but to live closer to nature. “I come from London, but I’ve gradually lived in more remote places, and found that I loved them,” she says. “In Exmouth, I realised during lockdown how much I loved the beaches when they weren’t full of people. I immediately loved the freedom of Shetland, and this really natural way of life.”

The chance of a different kind of life has long been part of Shetland’s appeal. When Cambridge student Emma Perring arrived in Fair Isle in the summer of 1993, it was peoples’ connection to the place and the community that struck her. “Just seeing the connection people had with the place and each other, and their pride in the community really hit home,” says Emma, who now works for the Shetland Islands Council and lives with her violin-making partner Ewen Thomson on the beautiful Channerwick bay in Shetland’s South Mainland.

Emma and Ewen’s life in a shiplap-clad house overlooking the bay is mostly sustainable – growing their own vegetables, rearing their own livestock on a small croft, and often fishing for their supper in a traditional yoal boat. Emma says that Shetland has a natural advantage when it comes to a more community-driven and sustainable way of living, especially as it transitions towards renewable energy sources in the 2020s. “These things that can seem quite contrived elsewhere – going to the woodland or the food market, going to see the band or the play – here, it’s just living,” she says. “It feels like other parts of the UK are trying to reconnect with something that has been broken, whereas Shetland never lost it.”

It feels like other parts of the UK are trying to reconnect with something that has been broken, whereas Shetland never lost it

There is certainly an appeal to a simpler way of life. Ben Fogle has talked of buying an island in Shetland, and local architects have reported a spike in interest in new plots during lockdown in 2020 (there are few places in the UK where it’s more affordable to build a house with a sea view).

But Shetland is more than just a pipedream escape. As well as the chance for career progression, there’s loads to do: not just a lifetime’s worth of coasteering, wild swimming and nature-spotting, but plentiful clubs and sports teams, especially around the modern leisure centres across the islands. Many people who move to Shetland report taking up new hobbies, joining new groups and generally being busier than they were when they lived in a city (losing a stressful commute frees up both time and headspace).

This year, there’s an extra sense of possibility, with old and new industries looking to the future: from the fishing industry, which has built new fish markets in the hope of a bright post-Brexit future, to the chance to launch small satellites from the new Shetland Space Centre on Unst. Nova Innovation’s pioneering tidal energy installation in the Bluemull Sound between Yell and Unst is just one example of the move towards greener energy.

All of it adds up to a place that seems well set to prosper in the 2020s. For anyone thinking about a big change, it could be the year to make your move.

Have you considered a move to Shetland in 2021? Why not sign up to our Living and Working in Shetland Facebook group, where you can get live answers to any of your burning Shetland questions. See our Vacancies page for the latest jobs in Shetland.