Published in Scotland Magazine Issue 25 on 17/02/2006.

This article is 29 months old and some information provided may be time sensitive. Please check all details of events, tours, opening times and other information before travelling or making arrangements.

Other worlds... (Orkney and Shetland)

The Shetland isles and the Orkney isles are both far enough away to have carved out unique personalities, but near enough to get to and enjoy easily. Dominic Roskrow reports

Of all Scottish destinations the Orkney isles and the Shetland isles are the most mystical, magical and exciting.

Their location, far off the coast of Scotland in a sort of Nordic no man’s land, means they have developed in their own unique way, partly Scottish but partly not. And everything about these sets of islands is deliciously out of kilter.

Their Northern location would suggest an inhospitable climate, for instance, and they are indeed rugged and windswept. But they’re surprisingly temperate as well, the Gulf Stream ensuring that they are not snowbound in even the harshest winters.

They should be remote, barely inhabited outposts where humanity is tolerated rather than where it thrives. Yet both sets of islands boast evidence of communities stretching back as far as any country in the world, and both are home to attractions of surprising delicacy and beauty.

And you’d expect a collection of islands so far removed from the seat of power of any nation to be bereft of culture, having often been little more than resting points for whatever group of seafaring marauders who were passing through on their way to another bout of raping and pillaging; but no. Both the Orkneys and the Shetlands have soaked up cultural influences from different sources and created their own unique and thoroughly endearing cultures.

With so much wonderful and scenic Scotland between Hadrian’s Wall and John O’Groats these islands could well have been forgotten about and ignored. But with so mu.....

To read the rest of this article you can buy this issue or subscribe to Scotland Magazine to have every issue delivered direct to your door.

By Dominic Roskrow

Section : Regional Focus

Page number : 33