Shetland 07/06/25

Unst and Mousa 7th June 

A perfect morning but there were a few heavy showers during the day even a hail shower.

Unst west coast

Everything was nice and dry when I packed up and walked south along the coast looking at masses of seabirds until joining the boardwalk back to Burrafirth.

Boardwalk across the bog 

There is an information area with parking space for campervans and a toilet at the end of the road and I met a few people who were surprised to meet me coming back already.

Lifesize bird profiles at Hermaness

There was no bus back to the ferry until later so I decided to walk, unfortunately there were some very heavy showers, including the afore mentioned hail.

Viking longhouse reconstruction

There is a reconstruction of a Viking longhouse and a longship that had been built in and sailed from Norway towards America but only got as far as Shetland before they gave up and left the boat at Haroldswick.

Viking longship 

A car stopped beside me and said she was going to the ferry and would I like a lift? Thank you very much. It turned out that she was an archelogist and we had an interesting discussion about the Shetland Brochs.

Ferry Terminal Yell

A certain amount of waiting for ferries and buses but I arrived in Lerwick in time to eat before the bus went to Sandwick.

Camp on the mainland looking out to Mousa

An amount of wandering about then to find somewhere suitable to camp that was near the Mousa ferry.

Mousa jetty

I had booked the night trip to Mousa to see the Storm Petrels returning to their nests and joined the other fifty nine people waiting for the ferry at 22.30.

What it says on the seat

A short crossing to Mousa and an interesting walk, with historical information, to the only complete broch in Scotland.

Mousa Broch in the summer dim

It was starting to get dark when we arrived, and soon afterwards a few Storm Petrels began to appear.

Boat skipper and guide

They are tiny birds that return to Mousa to breed in the stones of the broch, and other walls, after wintering in the South Atlantic. One of the pair stays in the nest and the other goes out to sea to feed. What we were seeing was the one coming back from maybe a three day feeding trip to allow it's mate to leave for it's own feeding trip. They travel up to 500 miles from Mousa on these feeding trips and come back when it is dark to avoid predators. The only land based predators on Mousa are Otters, there are no rats or mice, and they are too big to get at the nests but can catch the odd bird.

I tried to get some pictures of birds and Broch but it didn't work!

It was a fascinating place and amazing to hear the sound of the birds in the walls. I'm very pleased to have been there to see the spectacle.

Midnight

Back to the Mainland and it started to rain, typical, at least I didn't have to far to walk back to the tent.  

An excellent excursion, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

A long way but only 10 miles walked