The Shetland Islands: Expecting Murder?
The Shetland Islands are among the most remote places in Scotland. Yet viewers of the popular BBC/PBS Shetland television series have come to expect mystery and murder here. After a visit to this North Sea Scottish island group, they’re likely to leave disappointed—but at least they’ll leave alive.
The real Shetlands are low in crime and high in scenery. This wind-swept island group is actually closer to the Norwegian city of Bergen than the Scottish capital of Edinburgh. The Shetlands were colonized by Vikings. The islands remained part of Denmark until being ceded to Scotland in the 1400s. Many Norse connections remain in dialect words, place names, and among locals who espouse a “Viking” heritage. Even the Shetland flag follows the pattern: a blue background (Scotland) with a white Nordic cross (Scandinavia).
Shetland fans can stroll the streets of tiny Lerwick and glimpse familiar settings from the television series. Detective Inspector Jimmy Perez’s house is a quaint private residence on the harborfront…complete with a replica Viking boat anchored offshore.
The Lodberrie. Home to Shetland’s fictional former detective Inspector Jimmy Perez
Nearby Bain’s beach is the only sandy spot remaining along the old, developed foreshore of Lerwick. The beach often disappears at high tide.
Bain’s Beach. One of the few sandy beaches near town.
And speaking of Sandy…true Shetland fans will want to walk uphill through Lerwick’s residential area in search of another television series set piece. The town’s police station looks slightly less foreboding minus the onscreen drama (and with a few summer blooms in the foreground.)
Lerwick’s police station. Workplace for Sandy, Tosh, Billy and other Shetland characters.
Visitors who have never seen the television show will still enjoy quaint Lerwick with its fishing fleet, old fort, market cross, and prosperous Commercial Street shopping zone. And you don’t have to venture far afield to glimpse Shetland ponies, puffins, and countless sheep grazing in miles of rolling countryside. There are less than 25,000 people scattered across the Shetlands and they are vastly outnumbered by the sheep that generate prized Shetland wool.
The Shetlands are remote and getting there takes some effort. Although we’ve previously traveled across much of Scotland, we never ventured this far afield. Our trip to the Shetlands was part of a cruise from Amsterdam to Iceland. There is also an overnight ferry service from Aberdeen, and Shetlands is served by daily flights from mainland Scotland. So you don’t have to kill to get to Shetland.
Arriving in Lerwick by ferry.
Deb Hosey White is an executive management consultant with over thirty years experience working for Fortune 1000 companies. She is the author of Pink Slips and Parting Gifts, a workplace novel based upon those experiences. With English ancestors on both sides of her family, Deb is a serious Anglophile and an avid traveler.
David Stewart White began his adventures in family travel as a child when he lived in Paris and traveled throughout Europe. He is the author of Let's Take the Kids to London His travel articles have appeared in the Washington Post, the Charlotte Observer, Examiner.com, AAA World Magazine, and in numerous travel websites and online magazines.
Beyond Downton Abbey — A Guide to 25 Great Houses was their first collaborative travel writing effort. They followed up with Beyond Downton Abbey Volume 2 to tell the stories of another group of great homes in Britain.
www.beyonddowntonabbey.com/
