The sunny side of ShetlandCliff scenery at Sandness

"West is best". It's true - many a day when the east coast of Shetland is smothered in sea fog, the Westside is gloriously sunny. It happens particularly in summer, when south-easterly winds pick up moisture from the North Sea: as the clammy air passes over the hills of Shetland it warms and dries, clearing the mist away.


There are hundreds of freshwater lochs, most of them in hollows carved by glaciers out of the granite and sandstone rocks. The lochs and the burns linking them to the sea are home to trout, ducks, wading birds and plants such as bogbean and white water lily.

This is the classic "drowned coastline", flooded by the sea at the end of the Ice Age, some 12,000 years ago. The shorescape varies from the dramatic cliffs of the outer coast to long sea lochs, or voes, which extend far into the heathery hills and green croftland. And, whatever the wind direction, you can always find a sheltered beach.

Some useful information about WESTSIDE:

Shops: Bixter, Aith, Walls
Petrol: Bixter, Aith, Sandness, Walls
Public Toilets: Bixter, Skeld, West Burrafirth, Sandness, Walls
Pubs and Places to Eat: Walls
Swimming Pool Walls, Tel: 01595 809324
Post Offices: Bixter, Aith, Reawick, Skeld, Sandness, Walls
Public Telephones: Sandsound, Tresta, Bixter, Aith, Clousta, Sand, Garderhouse, Reawick, Skeld, Culswick, Stanydale, West Burrafirth, Brig o' Waas, Sandness, Dale, Lera Voe, Walls, Vadlure.
Police Station: Scalloway, Tel: 01595 880222
Churches: Tresta, Aith, Sand, Reawick, Skeld, West Burrafirth, Sandness, Walls.
Doctor and Health Centre: Bixter, Tel: 01595 810202
Walls, Tel: 01595 809352
Ferry Booking Offices: Papa Stour, Tel: 01595 810460
Foula, Tel: 01595 753254

Voe House Camping Böd Sketch