Your window into our Shetland lives

After a couple of summers working in one of the local hotels, I fell in love with a local. And I knew I had to move here for good. These wide-open spaces leave you heady from all that fresh air. But the winters can be hard. Living here isn’t for everyone. But these isles are a rugged treasure, a fleck of gold in the open ocean.

The curtains have closed on our first Shetland Knitting Tour of the 2024 season, and it was nothing short of magical. As the Shetland sun shone brightly for us and our guests experienced the very best of what these islands have to offer.

There is something so beautiful about Shetland when the sun comes through after wintery showers. The way the light reflects off the snow. The way the fresh snow crunches under your feet. We have been a little luckier with the snow this year – as has the rest of Scotland, we are so used to […]

By Hayley Anderton If you walk west across the spine of the hills from Burrastow house towards Littlure, or east from Littlure towards Burrastow and keep a careful eye to the ground you might be lucky enough to spot the Compass Wart. Wart in this case seems to be a corruption of Varða[i]. Warts were […]

You know that feeling you get after a good long walk, like your body and mind are completely refreshed and recharged? It’s not news that nature is good for us, but sometimes especially when things are busy, it’s easy to forget. I have been enjoying a newly-found routine of being focused and working hard throughout the […]

You will hear this from me over and over again – Shetland is a marvellous place for walking. What I appreciate most is the easy access and the fact that you’re never far from a great walk. Since our coastline is fairly long (1679 miles) you can pick a section and set off for a walk […]

The weather has been marvellous over the past week. Well, at least I think so, as the days seem to just fly by and merge together somehow. Have you been feeling the same? We are keeping our usual routines up and things have been busy but I still can’t help myself thinking about time and […]

Happy summer solstice! The other day I was asked this question as part of an interview for SHETLAND.org: “In Shetland, I’m happiest when…” My answer was “When I can be outdoors walking along the stunning coastline.” Often, when work is very busy and my head is buzzing with ideas, the only way to calm down is to […]

The second week of June and the weather has been what you imagine summer at 60° north be like. Bright sunshine but cold winds, still days but under a lid of impenetrable cloud – that’s why most of the photos from this week look so dark. It’s strange, you don’t think about it at the […]