Word: shetlander
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...northernmost specks of rock-the Muckle Flugga and the Out Stack. But even if their irresistible, Tolkienesque names aren't enough to lure you there, the tours run by Jonathan Wills should. The wildlife expert escorts boatloads of visitors around the 100-plus islands that make up the Shetland archipelago (the aforementioned pair included). His daylong Top of Britain cruise departs from another delightfully named island-Yell-and is a big crowd puller, with seal and seabird encounters aplenty as it slices through the bracing North Atlantic waters. "On every trip, I've shown visitors tens of thousands of seabirds...
...population of some 20,000 gannets, 40,000 guillemots, 5,000 kittiwakes, 4,000 puffins and hundreds of razorbills, shags and great skuas. And roughing it is definitely not on the itinerary: crew members aboard the 12-m vessel, the Dunter 3, serve a champagne lunch, complete with Shetland-grown strawberries, salad from Wills' own garden, and smoked mackerel and marinated herring from the locally famous Shetland Smokehouse. For more information, visit www.seabirds-and-seals.com...
...everywhere," she said, amused that I would be interested. "We'll pass some along the way." Sure enough, driving out of Lerwick, we saw dozens of ponies dotting the landscape. Through a friend in Edinburgh, I had arranged to stay at the home of Anna and Lowrie Simpson, native Shetlanders. When people on the isles discuss someone's origins, they say, "He's Shetland," conveying the sense that being from the place means one is the place. Shetlanders have their own dialect, a musical tongue that rises and swells with lots of rolled Rs, which they switch off with ease...
Fifteen of the 100 islands are inhabited, and each one offers a slightly different aspect of Shetland (and a different accent). To Shetlanders, being from Unst, say, is not at all the same as being from Whalsay. Most people visit Unst to alight upon a variety of Britain's northernmosts: here you can find the post office, brewery and golf course that sit at the country's highest latitude. Yell is otter country and also has miles of peat moorland; if you have any interest in peat cutting, this is the place to check it out. An array of wonderful...
Another source of income for Shetlanders is wool. I asked Ina Irvine, 63 (whose husband is Willie's first cousin), a professional knitter who spins her own wool, why the Shetland variety is so soft and durable. "The sheep here are small, and they have a soft fleece," she says. "I've been told that the sheep that are put on the hills have a softer wool because they're eating a more coarse grass." The respected craft is diminishing, and Shetlanders are trying to maintain it among the younger generations by teaching it in the schools...