Sumburgh Head Lighthouse, Visitor Centre & Nature Reserve

At this RSPB nature reserve a diverse range of seabirds nest in the Old Red Sandstone cliffs beneath Shetland's oldest and best known lighthouse.

A small, now inaccessible, quarry in the cliffs below Sumburgh lighthouse exposes sediments that were laid down at the bottom of a long vanished lake about 385 million years ago during the Devonian Period. These include a bed of impure limestone containing fossilised fish remains. Fossil beds like this are used to work out the relative ages of rocks in Britain and help us understand the geological evolution of the British Isles. Among the fossils present at Sumburgh Head are the remains of the fish Asterolepis thule, which was first discovered at this site.? Sumburgh Lighthouse is the oldest lighthouse in Shetland, built in 1821 by Robert Stevenson, grandfather to the author Robert Louis Stevenson. He visited Shetland in 1814 with the author Sir Walter Scott, who later set his novel 'The Pirate', around Sumburgh and nearby Fitful Head. The lighthouse buildings house the local RSPB office and has recently been redeveloped by Shetland Amenity Trust in a multi-million pound project to improve facilities, interpretation and access. The history and unique nature of this special place has been maintained while improving it for future generations.