Shetland Islands? Where are the Shetland Islands and why do I return so often to this archipelago? Lots of people are asking this question again and again.

The Shetland Islands are a part of Scotland and far up north, it is the most northerly part of the UK. It is so far up in the north, that you will not have full darkness during summer! The wildlife is abundant and in a way like no other place in Europe. The coastline is often breathtaking, especially if swell is pounding the many cliffs. The human history dates back to neolithic times with world famous ruins and settlements from different periods of its history. Access to the islands is not difficult, but needs to be planned ahead. You need either an overnight ferry, a flight from Scotland or you try to hop islands via ferry and the Orkney Islands. The economy is typical of such remote and small locations, boom is very close to bust and now the economy of the islands is again at a crossroads as the revenue from the UK north sea oil is going down or might even stop. A large part of the UK crude oil was processed on the Shetlands!

In central europe the Shetlands have been nearly unknown, to remote and far of the beaten track. As most of my readers know, I am drawn to remote and wild places......

The publicity of the islands got a major boost with the british crime drama series "Shetland" (Mord auf Shetland). Now you will find visitors flocking to the filming locations and the Shetlands got much more publicity world wide! The remote places however are still as remote and lonely as they have been.

My first visit was in the first half of the 80ties and I came back for hiking and later for wildlife and landscape photography again and again. I have witnessed many changes (to the better!) and I am very curious how the Shetlands will manage the future changes as a community and as an island ecosystem! 

The central part of this years visit was a wildlife and landscape photography workshop and I stayed some days before and after the worklshop on the islands. Before to prepare myself and the minibus for my guests and after to (re)visit some places and to make some hikes along the coastline. All pictures are only from my stay on the Shetlands. I have spent dome days in Scotland the long way up north and added a short vacation on the way back. I will cover Scotland in a later blog!

It was a good and successful workshop, only the last part suffered from bad weather, it was so bad that I had to cancel the visit of Foula. That was very sad for the two praticipants who booked Foula as an extension and for me as well, Foula is even more special than the Shetland mainland or Unst/Yell. In general the  weather was quite dry, if it rained it rained during the night. But it was also often overcast, which is typical for July, the locals say, that during July you will hardly see the sky. Overall it was a bit better than the average for June/July.

Enough introduction, lets start with the unusual and for most readers the very surprising part of Shetland life and history.

The viking past is visible, very visible on Shetland. Placenames and parts of the local language reflect the nordic past of the islands. Long time ago in 1649, a norwegian king married his doughter to the scottish king. But he could not pay the agreed dowry. Therefore Shetland (and Orkney) was pawned and Norway never payed back the pawn, it tried once but the scots refused.... That is the reason why Shetland is not norwegian and why eventually the UK had lots of North Sea Oil. Choose wise what you want to pawn.....

The most famous part of the viking identity is the fire festival Up Helly Aa end of January. 900 Shetlanders leaded by the Guiser Jarl are parading under torchlight through the streets of Lerwick to burn a viking longship replica as an final act. The Jarl-Squad is clad in more or less authentic viking costumes. That is the most important event in Shetland life and the Guiser Jarl is appointed by a committee and being a Guiser Jarl is a very distinguished role. I always wanted but never managed to visit the Up Helly Aa. Please follow that link and you can imagine what is going on in Lerwick during the festival, the pictures will tell a better story than my lines!

This years Guiser Jarl was Mr. Lynden Nicolson, he had to wait 18 years before he was elected!

There is only one event I know of, where the Jarls Squad is parading, after the winter festival. It is the Lerwick summer carnival, a lively community celebration. And we happened to be there only because we could not go to Foula! That evening was very special and lots of fun to watch and to photograph. It ended for the three of us in a french restaurant (highly recommended).

You should know, that after 20:00 nearly all of the few downtown restaurants in Lerwick do not take any orders or are fully booked. We could not book as we did not know when we would stop taking pictures. But C'est la Vie accepted us a bit grumpy, I must say, but the food was excellent. And after one of us outed himself as a Miles Davis enthusiast commenting the Miles Davis pieces coming from the speakers all was good and we even could have pudding and coffee. I will never forget the parade and the dinner with Miles Davis.

Now the pictures of the parade, have a look!

Maybe I should consider to visit Shetland for the Up Helly Aa, but end of January is a dark and otherwise not so interesting period of a Shetland year....

Back to the workshop and the main topics I wanted to cover with the group: It was about wildlife, landscape (including long exposures) and history. I am pretty sure that nobody of the group left the island without amazing pictures and lasting impressions!

I did not have a fixed itnerary, the accomodation was booked (Lerwick, Brae, Baltasound and Foula as an extension) and of course I had a ranked list of locations in my mind. But the final decision, what we would do during the next day was made the evening before, sometimes I even changed plans during the day. That made sure, that we could adopt to the ever changing weather, our mood and of course to unplanned events (like the lost luggage on the very first day). It worked remarkably well.

Most people come to the Shetlands for its birdlife and of course for Puffins. The cliff breeding seabirds are for sure the major attractions, but you have divers, terns, cormorants and lots of the ground nesting birds in the moorlands. Their calls are all around. We focused as group on the cliffs and its birdlife. As cute as they are, there is more than just puffins on the islands. All the same I guess about 50% of the time at the cliffs was with puffins....

The more I visit puffin colonies the less I understand their daily routine, probably they simply have no routine! It all depends on weather, their fishing grounds, the number of chicks, predation by skuas and so on. My penguin colonies on the Falklands stick to their schedule and you know quite well when to expect what behaviour. Of course there are exceptions to the rule, but with puffins the exception is the rule! Only very late in the evening, mostly after sunset, their behaviour is more predictable, they hang around near their burrows.

All you can do is to try the locations more than once, regardless of time and weather!

This year the pink thrift was in full bloom, awesome for puffin photography at Sumburgh!

This unpredictability makes life harder for a guide, as you never know whether a location would be good or bad. Two years ago we had beautiful weather at Hermaness and on the north end we were surrounded by puffins, literally hundreds. This year, same weather, nearly the same day and time, not a single puffin, not even one! That is the unpredictability I was talking of. In Sumburgh it is similar but not as extreme and the effort to go there is much less.....

Every puffin location on Shetland is different. Sumburgh Head is great due to its flowers, ease of access and it is simple to have the sea as a blurred backround. Hermaness is a huge area where you have to hike at least 60 min, to the best puffin places 2 hours and you can have everything, flowers, different backgrounds, eye level photography and plenty of other wildlife. Finally Noss, again many photographic options and as at Hermaness gannets as a second key species. But access to the island is restricted, it is not open every day of the week, the opening hours are only mid morning to late afternoon and you have to be ferried to the island by zodiac (which is not cheap...). All I say is, do not lay all eggs in one nest....

This year I learned from a local birdwatcher of another puffin colony, but it was to late to find it and to check it out. But maybe I try next time....

To watch puffins is fun, they are simply cute. Taking picures is sometimes easy and often demanding, especially during flight or if you want to cover their behaviour. You need patience and definitly more than one try. Go to different location and do not give up, if you cannot find them, they are just not at home.

This year we had birds bringing fish to their pufflings and this was really difficult to photograph. They more or less flew directly into their burrows, sometimes they landed in the burrow. The birds tried to avoid predation from skuas but not only from skuas. Once we saw that other puffins tried to grab a fish right from the beak of a landing bird! I have not seen this behaviour before. I also can not remember that the birds flew directly into the burrows. This behaviour was very visible in Sumburgh, not so much on Noss. I talked about the feeding of fish with a local birder and we both agreed that it happens now about two weeks later than a couple of years ago, for whatever reason. Perhaps they still start to feed mid of June, but bring the fish back only very late in the evening to avoid predation, or they pushed breeding back a couple of days. Nobody knows....

Lets make a short detour to the ponds in the moorlands! I knew that there are some red-throated divers around in the moorlands, but I never tried to find them. After the group left I was hiking the coastline of the Walls peninsula and while driving to a trailhead we passed a pond and I saw some birds on the pond. I stopped as it was a good view as well and I was right it was a pair of red-throated divers with chicks, my first red-throated divers ever. The pond was not to big and I managed to get some shots... Sometimes you need luck!

Back to the cliffs and to another attractive seabird nesting on the Shetland Islands, the northern gannet. It was one of the "must haves" for the group, both locations needed some effort (Noss and Hermaness). Puffins are cute but, sorry puffin lovers, clumsy, gannets are the opposite, they are immaculate, elegant and definitly not cute. The body of this bird is made for diving for fish!

One of the locations for gannets, Hermaness, is not only good for wildlife but its landscape sets it apart from other gannet locations. It is quite a long hike to the biggest gannet colony at Hermaness (there are many more smaller ones towards the lighthouse). If you approach it, you come around a corner and suddenly you are standing at the cliffs edge overlooking a wide amphitheatre. You see them, you hear them and you smell them. All senses are stimulated and it is good to leave the camera in the bag for a moment to take in the view!

This is one of my favourite spots on the island and not to be missed, even if it is a long drive including two ferries from Lerwick! At Hermaness you have everything for interesting and challenging photography. Attractive birds like gannets, puffins, skuas, divers, snipes, an outstanding coastal landscape and due to its remoteness not to many visitors, especially later in the afternoon. There only a few options to spend a night on Unst, therefore only few people will be there during later afternoon and during evening!

If you visit Hermaness stay as long as possible and do not come in the morning hours. The cliffs are nearly all completely in the shade, not good at all. Come around midday and stay as long as you want. Hermaness is never boring! You also should know that there is no shelter at all and the cliffs are very exposed. Bring food water and raingear, if you want to stay longer.

Before the Great skua population was hit hard by bird flu, Skuas had been abundant expecially at Hermaness or Foula. The population has shrunk to 20-30%. The likelyhood that you get good Skua shot is still there, but not guaranteed.

Some more shots from Hermaness, mostly gannets, as we did not have much luck with puffins this year at Hermaness!

The second gannet location is the island of Noss, an small island off Bressay and a nature reserve. As already mentioned Noss is not open to visitors all the time and the warden closes down the zodiac service if the weather is to poor or to dangerous for a crossing. Therefore a visit to Noss is not always possible and we had to tailor our days in Lerwick to make sure a visit of Noss was possible. If you want to take pictures you have to be there when the zodiac service begins. Even if you are one of the first at the jetty you do not have to much time for bird photography. It is a one hour hike to the best spots and 1 hour back. Not much hours left for photography, when you can start the walk only at 10:30 and have to be back at the wardens house between 16:00 and 17:00. As in Hermaness, there is no shelter as soon as you leave the wardens house!

All the same the island is well worth a visit, even two.... I came back with Christina after the group went home. The cliff scenery is great, the gannets are quite close and I was lucky with puffins two times! Do it as soon as the weather and the opening hours allow it, Shetland weather can be very special!

I usually had at Hermaness or at Noss gannets relaxing at the cliffs edge, good for portraits and close ups. But not this year, for whatever reason. 

But there is another option to visit Noss - from boat, and that is a great opportunity for a very different impression and very different pictures. There are two boat operators, who are offering good trips around the island. It is really worth while!

Again these trips are completely depending on weather. If the wind is to strong or the swell is to high, the trips will be cancelled. Again, as in 2024, we had been not so lucky, this year it drizzeled when we started and the swell was always very high. Very difficult conditions, but it was sometimes a magical atmosphere beneath the cliffs of Noss. Sometimes the clouds rolled in and the higher parts of the cliff vanished in the fog. All the same, it was great that we could do it, but it was a pity that the weather was so poor. The atmospheric pictures are great, but for classic wildife shots it was just so so....The boat trip is not only about gannets, but you can be close to razerbills, kittiwakes, skuas, terns, cormorants and guillemots!

Before I stop talking about birds and as a proof that there is more than the cliff breeders.... Promised the next pictures after these will not be about birds...

The amount of coastal landscape is nearly without end. You have steep cliffs like at Foula, Hermaness or Eshaness, peaceful sandy beaches like at Hillswick or Cunningsburgh or the world famous tombolo at St. Ninians Isle (watch some episodes of Shetland and you will know this tombolo).

The must locations during the workshop for coastal landscapes was St. Ninians, Eshaness and Hermaness. I planned also to visit the only "real" fjord on the islands, Ronas Voe, but the weather was to poor. Moreover I planned for Weisdale, Walls peninsula, Hillswick Bay and some more spots.

As part of the workshop I made an introduction to long exposure photography.

This type of landscape photography is not everybodies cup of tea, but this group had lots of fun experimenting with different exposure times. The downside of long exposures is, that you have to carry a tripod. The camera bag was quite heavy, as most locations have been great for landscape and wildlife, which means long lenses, wide angles and tripod, in short, nothing could stay at home.

What to say about Shetland coastal landscapes, where to start and where to stop? The coastline alone, even without Shetlands wildlife, would be more than enough to visit Shetland as a photographer!

By far the most famous place is Eshaness, the parking place is right at the cliffs, if you do not want to hike the coastline (all the same it is highly recommended to hike at Eshaness), you can just stay at the end of the road. If you want to walk, it is a very easy and gentle hike, it is more a stroll than a hike! Lerwick is close enough to do it as a day trip.

Now it is time to talk about cruise ships. After Orkney was overun by cruise ships and quotas have been set by Orkney, more and more of the huge cruise ships call at Bressay sound. I am talking about cruise ships about 334m (this years longest vessel) in length and just under 7000 pax! That was unheard of a couple of years ago! Lerwick has about 6500 inhabitants!

However compared to Orkney you do not feel the cruises as badly as on Orkney, they flood Lerwick, they visit Jarlshof (buses have to make appointments), Sumburgh and Eshaness. They do bicycle tours to Scalloway and visit the Broch on Mousa. But if you move a bit further than the parking areas in Sumburgh and expecially at Eshaness, you hardly feel and see mass tourism!

Therefore visit Jarlshof as early as possible and check the cruise calender published by the port of Lerwick. Walk away from parking places. That is at least for the moment enough! As Mousa is a small island and you need a small ferry, Mousa is probably the place where you feel it most!

A final word on such kind of tourism and tourists coming to a small spot in large numbers, and I know we are photographers as well.

We camped at Hillswick Campsite (after the group left). Hillswick is just before you arrive at Eshaness. On some days between 10:00 and 11:00 the buses arrived, sometimes minibusses sometimes huge coaches, not every day, but sometimes. The campsite has the only loo at Eshaness and when the coaches arrive the cafe opens just for them (otherwise it is always closed). My quite unintersting tent was never photographed so often as on that occasion, some of the bus/cruise tourists did not keep a minimum distance to tents and trailers, they did not honor any privacy at all, incredible!

Back to Eshaness. Eshaness is a place I love, whatever weather you have it is always a great spot. It can be a bit gloomy due to its dark volcanic rocks. It is good in heavy winds, at sunset, you can walk for 10 minutes or 6 hours. Eshaness is Eshaness!

You have seen pictures of Hermaness already, but I have to add again, that Hermaness is not wildlife only, its coastline is just incredible.... Do not forget a wideangle. The main difference to Eshaness is accessability and the time you need to arrive at the cliffs. Hermaness is far away from Lerwick! Day trips are close to impossible at least for photographers and accomodation on the isle of Unst, where the cliffs are located, is very limited. You have to walk for one hour before you arrive at the cliffs and if you want to visit the whole area, add another 3 hours, without much time for wildlife and landscape photography. In short it is a half day at minimum! At the trailhead you have basic facilites (water and toilets) and parking.

The Isle of Noss was also covered when I talked about wildlife, but I want to add some more impressions, as Noss is an example for the other type of Shetlands coastal landscape, the "inner coasts", which are more gentle! One destination different types of landscape, not bad at all!

What is my favourite area for coastlines and general landscape photography? For me it is a very clear answer: Northmavine/North Roe!

It has everything, cliffs, beaches, fjords, sea stacks, ponds, the highest mountains and moorlands (Eshaness is there as well). After the workshop we wanted to to some walking and stayed up there. Most of the following pictures have been shot not during the workshop as, as usual,  our time was limited. The walking can range from easy to long and demanding hikes near Ronas Hill.

There are two beaches, which are ranking at the top of the usual "most amazing lists"" of beaches in the UK. Both are in that part of Shetland and both involve long day hikes. Uyea beach I have never visited at all and the Long Ayre many years ago. We tried again this year but not only the time for the workshop was limited..... But next time I will try again Uyea Beach and the Long Ayre! There are always reasons to come back to Shetland! 

Most people will not be able to locate Shetland on a map, but nearly everybody is knowing Shetland Ponies! They are cute, highly social and typical! Shetties are a must have for a photographer on a Shetland tour and it was one for us! Shetland Ponies are all over the islands, not extremely common, but definitly not rare. But to find good spots is always a matter of luck. This year we have been lucky two times. One is one of my "it is quite sure that it will work" locations the other was a not planned at all. The opportunity suddenly was there and it was great.....

Have fun with some Shetties!

Otters! Shetland is famous for its otter population. It was not a focus of the workshop, but it is always worth while to watch out for otters. We had a very surprising encounter with an otter. In the middle of Lerwick harbour right at the Mareel, one came around, cleaned its fur and started to have a nap. He/She was not distrubed at all by the people watching the scene, videos on mobiles had been shot, the otter was so close that it was to close for my long lens.....

It was close to the end of the workshop and definitly a perfect end! Later I saw another otter at Eshaness Lighthouse (!!!). Always have an eye for otters, when you around at the coast of Shetland!

Before we leave the animal kingdom behind and come to the final paragraphs, some more ubiquitous animals, Shetland Sheep and rabbits. Shetland Sheep are the traditional breed on the Shetland Islands. Its a hardy race, which was bred for the last couple of hundred years to withstand the climate and poor pasture on the islands. This changed during the last decades and the overwhelming majority of breeds are now Shetland-Crosses (crossings with Blackfaces and Cheviots and more). For me this year was again a bit different as I had the feeling that in the better pastures around the coastlines many flocks are now more like Blacfaces and Cheviots. Change is all over the islands economy and I am sure that climate change plays a role in these statistics. The lower parts of Shetland are not as harsh as they have been not so many years ago!

And rabbits are anyway everywhere.... After Skua numbers declined they have hardly any predator, as foxes are not living on the islands!

As you probably understand by now, we have been very busy during the workshop. Nevertheless we had lots of fun! In the end and when you look at the pictures I had selected, it is hard to believe, that the workshop lasted about 10 days, even when considering, that some of the fotos have been created before or after the group came/left.

A unique place is Jarlshof, an historic site, which was settled from neolithic times into the present! I love to be there just after it opened its doors, very atmospheric! You can immerse yourself in the ruins of a neolithic dwelling, typical wheel shaped round houses, a broch and viking longhouses. All are ruins, but I love it.... 

If you are into standing stones, you  will find them as well. Not as spectacular as on neigbouring Orkney, but at least Bordastubble is very atmospheric and you are not trampeled by thousends of visitors!

Now a word about Lerwick. When cruise ships are in, it is busy. When not it is very, very quiet. Shops have very limited opening hours, restaurants are sparse, however very good and it is only town/village with a historic atmopshere. Since Scalloway Castle is hidden behind scaffolding, it is really the only atmospheric town. As much as I like the Islands, all other villages do not offer more than one or two interesting or historic buildings. That is not bad at all, because houses are ment to be comfortable in Shetland climate. And I do not want to live either in a crofters tiny " rubble stone house" dating back to 1800 something. I still can remember some of the villages in the 1980ties. It is a good change, just not for photographers looking for atmospheric villages!

Here some pictures from Lerwick downtown. Before I forget, the shops downtown close early, the Tesco is open nearly 7/24, no need to worry about food in Lerwick. The excellant indian restaurants take care of hungry people after the restaurants downtown have ended their service. We "had" to visit them regularly....

I have to come to an end, even if there are many more stories to tell and even more pictures to show. 

It was a good workshop, we have seen lots of things and everybody left the island after experiencing a unique nature and way of living. I will never forget the seafood orgies at Frankie's, the tasting of what means "Hot" in Gurkha Kitchen, Miles Davies nights in old leather chairs while finishing Orkney beer and Scottish whiskey and the well orchastrated and totally kept secret meeting with good old friends on a windy cliff at Sumburgh on day one! But also the poor weather which prevented us to go to Foula!

Thanks to everybody!

Do we offer the workshop again? Yes we will already in 2027! Tell everybody about it and look at some final pictures!

My next workshop is already on the horizon. In October I will be in the deep south again, Falkland Islands and South Georgia. 

As Shetland was successful this your we will offer it again in 2027, just click at the tile below and you will find the details!

And Greenland? Look at this offering. The core is an expedition cruise from Nuuk, the captal of Greenland to the very north of the west coast. It includes all the awesome places like Uummannaq and Upernavik. It is a unique trip along one of the wildest coastline in the northern hemisphere!

Munich, July 2026

Wir sind jetzt wieder regelmäßig auf den Fototagen und Reisemessen unterwegs. Wenn Ihr wollt besucht uns. Die nächsten Messen sind:

Internationales Naturfotofestival Lünen: 23. - 25.10.2026

Fernweh Festival Erlangen: 13. - 15.11.2026

Mundologia Freiburg: 29. - 31.01.2027

Norddeutsche Naturfototage Waren: 12. - 14.03.2027

Naturfototage Fürstenfeldbruck: 23. - 25.04.2027