⚠️ Entry rules and local regulations change without notice. Before booking, check entry requirements and local rules — visas, access, nature reserves, visitor quotas — with the official authorities.
Shetland is the UK’s northernmost archipelago, halfway between Scotland and Norway — Bergen is closer than Edinburgh. Around a hundred islands, sixteen of them inhabited, cut by voes, narrow sea inlets, so you are never more than a few kilometres from the ocean.
Islands more Norse than Scottish
Norse until 1469, Shetland has kept place names, a dialect and a festival from the Vikings. Lerwick, the capital and ferry port, and Scalloway, the old capital, are on Mainland; to the north, Yell, Fetlar and Unst are reached by short ferries, up to Muckle Flugga, the northernmost point of the British Isles.
Sites follow one another in the south of Mainland: Jarlshof, occupied for more than 4,000 years, the lighthouse and puffin cliffs of Sumburgh Head, the sand tombolo of St Ninian’s Isle, and on Mousa the best-preserved Iron Age broch, where storm petrels nest.
The climate is oceanic and windy, rarely very cold and rarely hot. People come for the light, seabirds, otters, ponies and Fair Isle knitting, named after one of the archipelago’s small islands.
Two opposite trips
Around the solstice night barely falls: the “simmer dim”. From May to August the cliffs of Sumburgh Head and Hermaness teem with seabirds — puffins, gannets and great skuas — and boat trips to Mousa run from April to mid-September.
Winter is dark and windy, but it is the season of the northern lights, called “mirrie dancers” locally, and of Up Helly Aa: on the last Tuesday of January, nearly a thousand torch-bearers parade through Lerwick before setting a Viking galley alight (26 January in 2027).
An overnight ferry or a Loganair flight
There is no direct flight from Paris: connect via Edinburgh or Aberdeen, then Loganair to Sumburgh (LSI), 40 km from Lerwick. By sea, NorthLink sails from Aberdeen to Lerwick every evening, arriving at 7.30 am. EU visitors need a passport and an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) since Brexit.
A car lets you see everything; drive on the left, often on single-track roads. The Shetland Islands Council inter-island ferries should be booked ahead, and fill up before heading to the north isles.
Essentials & your questions
| Main town | Lerwick |
|---|---|
| Area | about 1,470 km² |
| Language | English (Shetland dialect) |
| Currency | Pound sterling (GBP) |
| Entry | Passport + ETA (£20) for EU visitors |
| Best time | May–August for seabirds and light; late January for Up Helly Aa |
Do EU visitors need a visa for Shetland?
No, but a passport and an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA, £20) are compulsory. ID cards are not accepted.
Where can you see puffins?
At Sumburgh Head, in the south of Mainland, and at Hermaness on Unst, during the summer breeding season.
Can you attend Up Helly Aa?
Yes: the torchlit procession on the last Tuesday of January in Lerwick is public; the evening halls have very limited tickets.
Photo: Rob Farrow, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons