Places of Significance: The Shetland Islands

Photo by KF - Sept 2014

Pastoral and serene, with the occasional noise of a car passing on the mostly one-lane roads. But all that you typically hear is the noise of the bleating sheep.

This is Shetland: Low rolling hills covered in peat and heather; a jagged coastline;(1) sheep and miniature Sheltand ponies dotting the hillsides, many of them coraled by dry stone dikes/walls built hundreds of years ago. And a view of the ocean from almost everywhere you go - you’re never more than 3 miles from the water at any point on the islands, the Atlantic to the west, the North Sea to the east.

Image Source

The archipelago of Shetland is small (it’s combined land mass of 567 square miles could easily fit inside the footprint of the Great Salt Lake), but somehow it doesn’t feel small. And Shetland is remote, accessible by airplane or ferry, but it doesn’t feel isolated - they have all the conveniences of modern life (high-speed Internet, cell phones, even a cupcake bakery in downtown Lerwick). But somehow it feels less hurried, less complicated, with a more pervasive sense of contentment. And it’s populated by some of the happiest and friendliest people you could ever encounter.

Image Source

Sixteen of the approximately 100 islands are inhabited, with a total population of 23,000 (in 2011). Lerwick on the “Mainland” of Shetland (the largest island) is the capital, boasting 7,500 residents (in 2010) and features whatever services you could need, including a large Tesco. ("Lerwick" is a Norse word meaning "muddy bay.") The outlying villages are small communities with maybe a post office or small grocer and a social hall, and clusters of modern homes mingled with the relics of ancient stone crofter cottages. Often there’s no house numbers or street addresses for the homes - their mailing address is simply the “name” of their home, followed by the village name, Shetland, and the postal code.

Image Source

Several of the islands are significant to our family:(2)

• The mainland of Shetland (the largest island): This is where our dear cousins R and E live, with their husbands G and J, respectively, in the village of Sandwick. But we have records of ancestors living in the village of Sumburgh and the town of Lerwick as far back as about 1590 (Robert Bruce, bef 1590-1636).

• The Island of Yell: In the village Burravoe, on the southeast corner of the island, is where Robert Bruce (1827-1865; married to Wilhilmina Inkster, 1835-1896) lived in the Manor House (also here), right on the edge of the voe/inlet. This house is where Ursilla Katherine Bruce (1862-1937) was born, Grandma Ella's grandmother. Cousin N currently lives in Burravoe and works at the Old Haa, which is a short walk from her home.

• The Island of Whalsay: At one time, the Bruce family owned the entire island. We have ancestors who lived here back to at least the 17th century: Robert Bruce (1690-1742). A later ancestor, also Robert Bruce (1766-1844), was a (the?) Deputy Lieutenant, Convener of Zetland and built the Symbister House, another laird estate home.

It’s remarkable to feel such a depth of personal family history in such a small place!

Notes:

1. The coastline itself measures 1,679 mi long.
2. Perhaps more than these? I haven’t ventured back into the family history far enough yet.

Other fun details shared with us by cousins GS and RS:

• Dry stone dikes/walls, built hundreds of years ago, zigzag across the countryside.
• Shetland has strong winds - which many prefer over the rain.
• Sheep shearing - in June, to prepare animals for the "heat wave" of summer.
• All independent crofters/famers that sell their wool to the manufacturers. 
• Very few trees on the islands - mostly peat, grasses. 
• Fishing and wool are main industries (fishing with salmon cages and muscle rafts).
• Christmas trees are imported from Bergen, Norway. A huge one is brought on a fishing boat and erected in Market Cross.