Published in Scotland Magazine Issue 27 on 09/06/2006.

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Scott in Shetland

In the first of a new series tracing Sir Walter Scott’s relationship with the Scottish islands, Ian Mitchell looks at Shetland

In 1814 Scott accepted an invitation from the engineer Robert Stevenson to accompany him aboard a ship of the Northern Lighthouse Commissioners, on a tour circumnavigating Scotland and inspecting the condition of maritime safety installations.

An unforeseen outcome of the voyage was the appearance in 1822 of the novel The Pirate, based on the impact Scott’s visit to Shetland had on him.

Scott’s first impression of Shetland was favourable, and was of Lerwick itself from the boat on August 4.

“It is a most beautiful place. The town, built irregularly on a hill, has a picturesque appearance,” he commented.

However on going ashore, he revised his opinion and decided it was “a poor-looking place,” largely because of the flagged streets which (surprisingly) he did not find picturesque, and the fact that hundreds of drunken Greenland whalers were engaging in riotous behaviour.

Some of the whalers attempted to storm the local jail (where their companions were held) with anchors and tackle, before the military from the fort intervened. Scott was, however, fascinated by the antique customs he found on the island, many accounts of which found their way into The Pirate.

At the exit of Clickimin Loch outside Lerwick he came upon a Norse mill.

“But such a mill! The wheel is horizontal and the cogs turned diagonally to the water. There are about 500 such mills in Shetland, each incapable of grinding more than a sack at a time,” he wrote.

His amazement is later doubled by encounterin.....

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By Ian Mitchell

Section : Scottish Islands

Page number : 61