Michael Batson

The Shetland Islands are 170kms from Scotland, 220kms from Norway, and 360kms from the Faroe Islands. They lie on the border between the Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea on the same latitude as Helsinki and Anchorage; far enough north that with clear skies the aurora borealis are visible. Just 16 out of the more than 100 islands of the Shetland archipelago are inhabited with most people living on the largest island aptly named “Mainland”, the fifth-largest island in the British Isles. Shetlanders don’t regard themselves as British or even Scottish. The islands were ruled for 600 years by the Vikings until they were mortgaged to Scotland in 1468 as part of a dowry. After the Second World War, many islanders moved to New Zealand so there are connections to down under as well as to Scandinavia. Being the child of immigrants, I can relate to such a move, though my parents weren’t from Shetland. It’s said that the closest railway station to Shetland is Bergen, that’s not quite true but it sounds good. I once spent part of a summer in Shetland (sometimes Shetlands used interchangeably) where the days are long with almost perpetual daylight and nighttime lasting barely three hours; it got dark at 11pm and was getting light again by 2am. The beaches are beautiful; there are no trees and of the eponymous pony I saw not a one; in fact finding one takes special effort. In winter the fog descends and due to bad weather, the main maritime link can be severed, air travel stops