And then there were four...

Day 23: Friday 22nd May, 2026

Lerwick

Awoke to a grey but brightening skies. Whilst the Captain took a trip to the chandlers and picked up the hire car, I took a stroll along Commercial Street..

...and took a peek at Fort Charlotte - a large artillery fort that was first constructed in 1665 during the Anglo/Dutch wars, and then rebuilt over a century later during the American War of Independence. It is now still a base for an Army Reserve Unit...the 212 Highland Reserve Battery...

After lunch and the Captain had hardwired the starlink into its exterior home, it was time to make full use of the hire car, and whizz down to the south of the island....over the runway at Sumburgh airport...

...to visit Yarlshoff - a prehistoric and Norse settlement that sits on the Southern tip of the headland above the natural harbour of West Voe, Sumburgh...

A truly fascinating place that serves as a microcosm of Shetland history - over 4000 years of continuous human habitation in one small site. First the oval shaped houses of the Neolithic and Bronze Ages...

...then the impressive Iron Age brochs and wheelhouses - with their double-skinned walls, underground passageways and wheelhouse structures...

...next came the Norse and Viking longhouses - and here we have the largest visible site in Britain... constructed from stone rather than the more familiar timber, as trees were scarce on Shetland...

...and finally the Medieval/Scottish period with the 'Laird's House' a late 15th Century fortified manor house, visited by Walter Scott and inspiration for his novel 'The Pirate' (in fact the name Yarlshoff was invented by Walter Scott for the novel)...

..After a quick cuppa at the rather dismal Sumburgh Hotel, we whizzed up the coast to the small tied island of St Ninian's and it's largest tombolo in the U.K...

It felt great to have the sand beneath our feet again, as we strolled across the isthmus to visit St Ninian's chapel...

...and then back past the saunas...

...and back to Sumburgh Airport, spotting my first White-tipped Sea Eagle up close, swooping off a dyke wall next to our car (which I took as a good omen)...

...to pick up two more motley crew...

...Then an evening stroll round Lerwick, and a good catch up over dinner at the Dowry, where Cal presented the Captain with his detailed passage plan for the crossing to Bergen...

...so confident with this finely tuned grasp of the voyage ahead, we all put our heads down in readiness for the BIG PASSAGE to come in the morning....