Five things to love about Shetland

As the author of a popular Scottish travel blog, I’ve spent the past six years touring Scotland with my travel buddies, husband Alex and Casper the Wee White Dug.

Together, we’ve explored the country from north to south and east to west. Every nook and cranny has been visited, leaving no stone unturned.

When I say no stone unturned, that’s not strictly true. Shetland was our final frontier. A place we were desperate to visit but couldn’t until NorthLink Ferries introduced pet-friendly cabins on their Aberdeen to Lerwick service. I frequently checked their website hoping their pet policy would change, and one day it did. Tickets and accommodation were promptly booked.

In August, that long-awaited trip arrived and we sailed into Shetland excited and full of anticipation. Using Lerwick as our base we spent six days exploring the beautiful northern isles. Our visit to Shetland had many highlights.

These are my top five:

Fascinating history

Being a history geek I was in my element with so many fascinating historical sites to see in Shetland.

Clickimin Broch was the first place we visited shortly after arriving in Lerwick. I love following in the footsteps of the Picts and am a tad obsessed with brochs, so the Iron Age tower had me in raptures. The Wee White Dug seemed quite taken by it too.

Over the course of six days more brochs followed (Scatness). There was a medieval chapel too where an incredible hoard of Pictish treasure was found (St Ninian’s Isle); a Neolithic farm (Scord of Brouster) and temple (Stanydale); a Bronze Age smithy (Jarshof); plus a Viking longhouse and Pictish burial site (Sandwick); not forgetting a mighty 17th century fort with a fearsome reputation (Fort Charlotte) and a 16th century castle (Muness) for good measure.

I was in history geek heaven.

Beautiful beaches

Before we visited Shetland I knew there was a beautiful beach at St Ninian’s Isle, but I expected it to be the exception rather than the rule. Boy, was I wrong.

We visited more gorgeous beaches than you can shake a stick at. They were unspoiled and all but deserted – perfect.

Among our favourites were the much photographed beach at St Ninian’s Isle. It was even lovelier than the photos I’d seen of it. It led us across the UK's largest active tombolo to St Ninian’s Isle which was pretty cool.

We found another absolute gem of a beach on West Burra, also with an impressive tombolo you could cross to reach Kettle Ness. With a little elevation on Kettle Ness, we were treated to a breathtaking view of Minn Beach and the tombolo below. It was a scene to rival anything you’d see in the Outer Hebrides.

Wildlife encounters

After following a spate of orca sightings over social media, we arrived in Shetland quietly confident we’d spot an orca or two. We didn’t. They decided to go on holiday to Orkney the day we arrived.

Wildlife watching is one of our favourite things to do on our travels but we weren’t disappointed by the absence of orcas. On three out of six days in Shetland we spotted otters. Once from a distance and twice, up close on the islands of Yell and Unst.

We were able to sit quietly on the shore and watch them hunting and eating fish for breakfast. It was magical. We spot otters occasionally on our travels, but never as close up and never as undeterred by having humans and a wee dug in close proximity.

Then there were the Shetland ponies. Oh my goodness – cuteness overload. We saw them everywhere and they never failed to raise a smile.

I had a first in Shetland too, when I spotted a starfish on the pier at Hamnavoe. It was a strange looking thing. The encounter turned out to be our good deed for the day.

The poor thing had no way to get back to sea and was at risk of drying out under the sun. We popped it in the harbour and watched as it "swam" off. Do starfish swim?

Lovely Lerwick

Normally, on an island escape we avoid towns but I’m glad we didn’t on our trip to Shetland. We adored Lerwick. It’s such a pretty town.

The lanes were a delight to explore (and photograph) and I loved the numerous independent shops selling locally made products. We bought Fair Isle jumpers, knitted hats, toiletries made using goat’s milk and natural ingredients and a lovely print by a local artist to remind us of a wonderful holiday.

We also went out out in Lerwick one night. It was our first proper night out in a long time. It felt great to sit in The Dowry chatting over a few drinks as we ate delicious Scottish tapas.

And just when we thought we couldn’t love Lerwick any more, we discovered Bain's beach, with its beautiful waterside properties and a Viking boat moored off the coast.

Most northerly ... everything!

I love to collect places as we travel – the longest glen, highest waterfall, tallest mountain etc, so visiting Shetland was brilliant. I got to add several most northerly places to my list and had lots of fun in the process.

After stopping at the award winning Frankie's fish and Chips in Brae for lunch, we can now say we’ve eaten at the UK’s most northerly fish and chip shop. It was delicious too. The fish was white and flaky and the batter as light as a feather.

Then there was Unst, my favourite of all the places we visited in Shetland. There we saw the UK’s most northerly distillery, church and castle, and finally at Skaw, we reached the end of the road and the UK’s most northerly settlement. After six years of exploring Scotland we’d finally run out of road.

Our Shetland holiday was one of the best we’ve ever had at home or abroad. I left a little piece of my heart in those rugged northern isles.

With so much still to see and do I know we’ll return and I can't wait.

You can follow Samantha and Casper's adventures at the blog and on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.