Sea Kayaking in Shetland – an expert's favourite locations

Doug Cooper is passionate about sea kayaking and has spent much of the last 30 years exploring and guiding around the Scottish coastline. In July 2024, he visited the Shetland Islands to participate in, support and coach at the Shetland Sea Kayak Symposium.

It’s fair to say he enjoyed the trip. He spent most of his time in Shetland on the water in conditions ranging from rough to smooth and described the islands as “arguably the best sea kayaking destination on the planet!”.

In this blog post, Doug reflects on the symposium and highlights some of his most memorable places for sea kayaking in Shetland.

It was the Shetland Sea Kayak Symposium that brought me up here initially, a three-day event organised by Shetland Canoe Club that runs every other year; bringing together coaches from all over the world, local paddlers and this year 88 attendees all up for some amazing paddling. What an event it was; endless coaching sessions and paddling trips all showing off the best that Shetland has to offer.

The incredible Shetland shoreline provides paddlers with huge caves, immense cliffs, arches galore, an array of marine wildlife and a welcoming social time for everyone. And who can forget the daily homemade cakes and Shetland dance as a finale?

The Shetland Sea Kayak Symposium lasted three days but it seemed rude not to stay for three weeks! But how to fill my time? Well, it was an opportunity to support the kayak club, and we arranged skill development coaching days for a range of their club paddlers from less experienced to veteran paddlers, coaches to members and the young to the old (including the amazing club member who is not far off a paddling octogenarian).

Alongside this, I could support four key club members in achieving leadership and coaching qualifications, what an asset they will be for this ever-growing and ever-evolving club.

Of course, I also got out on plenty of days guiding trips or personal paddling – read on to discover more about the highlights…

Fitful Head was so good I did it twice; once as a solo mission on a calm day and once as an advanced paddle with club members. There was plenty of swell and excitement on that one. Located at the south-westerly point of the Shetland Mainland, the immense grass-covered cliffs are home to hundreds of puffins and bear the brunt of swell and tidal waters that swirl around the cliff bases. It is a challenging yet stunning paddle, best saved for good conditions, but is a headland that rarely sees no swell so will keep you on your toes.

The Isle of Noss was another definite highlight, with its immense towering cliffs rising vertically from the sea it left myself and the group I was guiding feeling very insignificant. What makes this island so special is its inhabitants, thousands upon thousands of gannets. The noise they make calling from the cliffs is deafening, the smell filling your nostrils is overpowering and the sight of them circling above in their thousands is breathtaking – this trip is an assault on the senses that’s for sure!

Muckle Roe is an island that for many is one of the highlights of a trip to Shetland, and it certainly didn’t disappoint. Although the day was grey, the sea was calm; and that meant the plethora or caves, arches, stacks and tunnels were ‘open for exploration’.

Despite the grey skies, the bright red granite rocks that make up the coastline and give way to red sandy beaches more than brightened up the day. My group were blown away by the fact on more than one occasion we could choose between paddling ‘around’ a headland or paddling ‘through’ a headland – linking caves and tunnels often hundreds of metres in length. These caves are so expansive at one stage I lost half my group in one – but that’s perhaps a story not for public consumption!

Ronas Voe is my final ‘postcard highlight’. The location provides a relatively short paddle in what can often be very sheltered water. Yet Ronas Voe arguably has the most dramatic sea stacks and rock scenery in the islands.

It was here that my group discovered a ‘Shetland kilometre’. On the map, it measures a kilometre but by the time you’ve paddled it going in and out of every cave, arch and stack it ends up being three kilometres!

I hope this blog post inspires you to plan a future trip to Shetland, the islands of the far north – you won’t be disappointed.

You can check out more of Doug’s adventures and tips at the Scottish Sea Kayaking website.