Shetland

For other uses, see Shetland (disambiguation).

Shetland flag	Coat of arms Coat of arms
(In Detail)	(Coat of arms)
Motto Með lögum skal land byggja
(Old Norse: With laws land shall be built. Quote from the Frostating law)

Shetland (formerly spelled Zetland, from Template:Latinxetland, Scottish Gaelic: Sealtainn) formerly called Hjaltland, is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. It is an archipelago to the north-east of Orkney and mainland Scotland, with a total area of approximately 1466 km² (566 sq. miles). It forms part of the division between the Atlantic Ocean to the west and the North Sea to the east. The administrative centre and only burgh is Lerwick.

The largest island, known as the Mainland, has an area of 374 square miles, making it the third-largest Scottish island and also the third-largest island surrounding Great Britain.

Shetland is also a lieutenancy area, comprises the Shetland constituency of the Scottish Parliament, and was formerly a county.

History

Prehistoric times

Shetland has been populated since 3000 BC. The population subsisted on cattle-farming and agriculture and erected megalithic monuments. From around 2000 BC (Bronze Age), the climate cooled and the population moved to the coast. In the Iron Age, many stone houses were erected, the ruins of some of which are preserved today, such as Jarlshof and Staynsdale temple. Around 279 A.D., Roman sources describe a people known as the Picts, who in later centuries were conquered by the Vikings.

Norwegian colonisation of Hjaltland (Shetland)

Harald Hårfagre took control of Hjaltland in ca 875.
The image is from the Icelandic manuscript Flateyjarbók from the 1400s

By the end of the 9th century the Vikings shifted their attention from plundering to colonisation. The shift was mainly due to the overpopulation of Norway in comparison to the resources and arable land available there at the time. Their ships now carried settlers and equipment to start afresh in a new place. The Vikings went to Shetland, Orkney, Hebrides, Isle of Man, Faeroes, Iceland and Greenland, and later they even reached North America. Mainly Norwegians followed that route, the Danes went to more populated areas such as England and France while the Swedes went east.

Hjaltland was colonised by Norwegian Vikings around the end of the 9th century. The colonisers gave it that name and established their own laws and language. That language evolved into the West Nordic language Norn, which survived into the 1800s.

After Harald Hårfagre had laid all of Norway under his rule, many of his opponents fled and some of them settled in Orkney and Shetland. From here they would raid both Scotland and Norway, which prompted Harald Hårfagre to raise a large fleet which he sailed to the islands. In about 875 he and his men took control over both Shetland and Orkney. Ragnvald, Earl of Møre received Orkney and Shetland as an earldom from the king as reparation for his son being killed in battle in Scotland. Ragnvald gave the earldom on to his brother Sigurd the Mighty.

Shetland was Christianised in the 10th century.

Conflict with Norway

King Sverre transferred Shetland from the earl to the Crown of Norway in 1195.
Image: The oil painting King Sverre's march over the Vossefjell by Peter Nicolai Arbo.

In 1194 when king Sverre Sigurdsson (ca 1145 - 1202) ruled Norway and Harald Maddadsson was Earl of Orkney and Shetland, the Lendmann Hallkjell Jonsson and the Earl's brother-in-law Olav raised an army called the eyjarskeggjar on the Orkneys and sailed for Norway. Their pretender king was Olav's young foster son Sigurd, son of king Magnus Erlingsson. The eyjarskeggjar were beaten in the battle of Florvåg near Bergen. The body of Sigurd Magnusson was displayed for the king in Bergen in order for him to be sure of the death of his enemy, but he also demanded Harald Maddadsson (Harald jarl) to answer for his part in the uprising. In 1195 the earl sails to Norway to reconcile with King Sverre.

The såttmål regulated the legal and political relations between earl and king. As a punishment the king placed the earldom of Shetland under the direct rule of the king from which it was never returned. In practice Harald Maddadsson remained earl, but controlled by the king. Harald also had to accept a royal governor (Sysselmann), but he was killed after King Sverre died. The settlement between king and earl was later confirmed in 1210 and 1267..

The power of the earldom was weakened and as an effect Scottish influence increased. Scotland was roughly 16 km away from the Orkneys and Harald Maddadson struggled to keep his independence.

Increased Scottish interest in the islands

After defending the Hebrides, Håkon IV Håkonsson dies in Kirkwall the same year.
Image from the Icelandic manuscript Flateyjarbók from the 1400s

When Alexander III of Scotland turned 21 in 1262 and became of age he declared his intentions of continuing the aggressive policy his father had begun towards the western and northern isles. This had been put on hold when his father had died 13 years earlier. Alexander sent a formal demand to the Norwegian King Håkon Håkonsson.

Norway had after decades of civil war achieved stability and grown to be a substantial nation with influence in Europe and the potential to be a powerful force in war. With this as a background King Håkon rejected all demands from the Scottish. The Norwegians regard all the islands in the North Sea as part of the Norwegian Realm. To put more weight on his answer King Harald activated the leidang and set off from Norway in a fleet which is said to have been the largest ever assembled in Norway. The fleet met up in Breideyarsund (probably today's Bressay Sound) before the king and his men sailed for Scotland and made landfall on Isle of Arran. The aim was to conduct negotiations with the large army as a backup.

Alexander III drew out all negotiations while he patiently waited for the autumn storms to set in. Finally, after tiresome diplomatic talks, King Håkon lost his patience and decided to attack. At the same time a large storm set in which destroyed several of his ships and kept others from making landfall. The Battle of Largs in October 1263 was not decisive and both parties claimed victory, but King Håkon Håkonsson's position was hopeless. On 5 October he returned to the Orkneys with a discontented army where he died of a fever on 17 December 1263. His death halted any further Norwegian expansion in Scotland.

File:Frostatingseglet.gif

Magnus Lagabøte relequishes Sudreyar (Hebrides) and Man in return for Scottish recognition of Norwegian sovereignty over Orkney and Hjaltland.
The image shows the seal of Frostating where King Magnus Lagabøte on St. Hans day in 1274 as he seated on the throne gives the lagmann of Frostating the new Frostating law

King Magnus Lagabøte broke with his father's expansion policy. He started negotiations with Alexander III. With the Treaty of Perth in 1266 he surrendered furthest Norwegian possessions including Man and the Sudreyar (Hebrides) to Scotland in return for 4000 marks sterling and an annuity of 100 marks (which the Scottish soon stopped paying). The Scottish also recognised the Norwegian sovereignty over Orkney and Shetland.

One of the main reasons behind the Norwegian desire for peace with Scotland was that the trade with England was suffering from the state of war. In the new trade agreement between England and Norway in 1223 the English demanded Norway to make peace with Scotland. In 1269 this agreement was expanded to include mutual free trade.

Pawning of the islands to Scotland

King Christian I pawned the islands to pay a dowry.
Illustration from the book Nordens Historie from 1887 by Niels Bache

In the 14th century Norway still treated Orkney and Shetland as a Norwegian province, but the Scottish influence was growing, and in 1379 the Scottish earl Henry Sinclair took control over the islands on behalf of the Norwegian king Håkon VI Magnusson. In 1348 Norway was severely weakened by the Black Plague, and in 1397 it entered the Kalmar Union. After a time Norway became controlled by Denmark. King Christian I of Norway, Denmark and Sweden was in money troubles and when his daughter Margaret became engaged to James III of Scotland in 1468 he needed money to pay for the dowry. Without the knowledge of the Norwegian Riksråd (Council of the Realm) he entered into a contract on 8 September 1468 with the King of Scotland in which he pawned the Orkneys for 50,000 Rhenish guilders. On 28 May the next year he also pawned Shetland for 8,000 Rhenish guilders.. Just to be on the safe side he secured a clause in the contract which gave future kings of Norway the right to redeem the islands for a fixed sum of 210 kg of gold or 2,310 kg of silver. Several kings of Denmark-Norway tried to redeem the islands during the 17th and 18th centuries. Each claim was dismissed by the Privy Council in Edinburgh. The islands were already at that time under a strong influence from English language and customs, but the connection with Norway remained for some time. Norwegian institutions and authorities partly continued to function, and the Norn language was both spoken and written for a long time.

On Shetland a yearly tax was paid to the bishop in Bergen long into the 15th century..

James III and Margaret, their betrothal led to Shetland passing from Norway to Scotland

The Hansa era

After the decline of the Vikings, four centuries followed where the Shetlanders sold their goods through the Hanseatic League of German merchantmen in Bergen, Bremen, Lübeck and Hamburg. The Hansa would buy shiploads of salted cod and ling. In return, the island population got cash, grain, cloth, beer and other goods. This trade lasted until the Acts of Union 1707 prohibited the Hansa from trading with Shetland. As a consequence Shetland went into an economic depression as the Scottish and local traders were not as skilled in trading with salted fish. For the independent farmers of Shetland this led to a negative spiral where they had to sell their land to landlords. They were then obligated to pay rent and eventually became serfs.. The Liberal prime minister William Ewart Gladstone freed the serfs from the rule of the landlords in the 1880s.

Napoleonic wars

3000 Shetlanders served in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic wars from 1800 to 1815.

World War II

During World War II a Norwegian naval unit nicknamed the Shetland Gang or the Shetland bus was established by the Special Operations Executive Norwegian Section in the fall of 1940 with a base in Scalloway in order to conduct operations on the coast of Norway. About 30 fishing vessels used by Norwegian refugees to cross the sea were gathered in Shetland. Many of these vessels were rented, and Norwegian fishermen were recruited as volunteers to operate them.

The Shetland Gang sailed in covert operations between Norway and Shetland, carrying men from Company Linge, intelligence agents, refugees, instructors for the resistance, and military supplies. Many people on the run from the Germans, and much important information on German activity in Norway, was brought back to the Allies this way. Mines were in some instances laid, and direct actions against German ships were also taken. At the start the unit was under a British command, but later on Norwegians joined in the command.

The fishing vessels made 80 trips across the sea. German attacks and bad weather caused the loss of 10 boats, 44 crewmen, and 60 refugees. Because of the high losses it was decided to procure faster vessels. The Americans gave the unit the use of three submarine chasers (HNoMS Hessa, HNoMS Hitra and HNoMS Vigra). None of the trips with these vessels caused any loss of life or equipment.

All in all the Shetland Gang made over 200 trips across the sea and the most famous of the men, Leif Andreas Larsen (Shetlands-Larsen) made 52 of them..

Shetland today

During the 1960s and 1970s oil and gas was found off Shetland. The East Shetland Basin is one of the largest petroleum sedimentary basins in Europe and the oil extracted there is sent to the terminal at Sullom Voe (Norse: Solheimavagr). Sullom Voe terminal opened in 1978 and is the largest oil export harbour in Great Britain with a volume of 25 million tons per year.

Culture

The culture of Shetland is very much a mix produced by the influences from both Scandinavia and the British Isles. Shetland's fiddle music is a blend of many influences, including ancient Norwegian folk music, Scots reels, jigs and slow airs, and tunes brought home by sailors from Ireland, Germany, North America and even Greenland. The landscape and the light found here has been an inspiration to many artists in the fields of painting, drawing and sculpturing, both local and from other parts of the world. There are several local art galleries. The Shetland dialect was actively discouraged in schools, churches and civic life until the late 20th century, but has since then been restored to be also a language of culture. It is used both in local radio and dialect writing, kept alive by the Shetland Folk Society and the quarterly New Shetlander magazine.

Up Helly Aa is any of a variety of fire festivals held in Shetland annually in the middle of winter. Some of the elements of Up Helly Aa is said to go back 12 centuries and more, but the festival is only just over 100 years old in its present, highly organised form. The festival is a celebration of the islands' Viking heritage and includes a procession of men dressed as Vikings and the burning of a replica longship.

Natural features

Geography

Out of the approximately 100 islands, only fifteen are inhabited. The main island of the group is known as Mainland.

The other inhabited islands are: Bressay, Burra, Fetlar, Foula, Muckle Roe, Papa Stour, Trondra, Vaila, Unst, Whalsay, Yell in the main Shetland group, plus Fair Isle to the south, and Housay and Bruray in the Out Skerries to the east (see below).

Other , uninhabited, islands include:

• Balta, Bigga, Brother Isle
• East Linga
• Fish Holm
• Gloup Holm, Grunay, Gruney
• Haaf Gruney, Hascosay, Havra, Hildasay, Huney
• Lady's Holm, Lamba, Linga near Muckle Roe, Linga near Shetland Mainland, Linga near Yell, Little Roe, Lunna Holm
• Moul of Eswick, Mousa, Muckle Flugga, Muckle Ossa
• North Havra, Noss
• Orfasay, Out Stack, Oxna
• Papa, Papa Little
• Samphrey
• Sound Gruney, South Havra, South Isle of Gletness
• Urie Lingey, Uyea, Uynarey
• Vaila
• Vementry
• West Linga

Fair Isle lies approximately halfway between Shetland and Orkney, but it is administered as part of Shetland and is often counted as part of the island group. The Out Skerries lie east of the main group. Due to the islands' latitude, on clear winter nights the aurora borealis or 'northern lights' can sometimes be seen in the sky, while in summer there is almost perpetual daylight, a state of affairs known locally as the 'simmer dim'. Template:Infobox Scotland traditional county

Climate

Shetland has a temperate Atlantic Ocean climate, which entails that the summers are mostly drizzle, light and cool. The sunniest months of the year are the period from April to August and has at most 19 hours of sunlight in a day. Winters are dark, mild and with the number of daylight hours dropping to below eight a day.

Average yearly precipitation is 1037 mm, which is half that of Fort William on the west coast of Scotland. 3/4 of the precipitation falls during winter. The driest period is from April to August and fog is common in the east of the islands during summer.

Average temperature coldest month	4.9 °C (February)
Average temperature warmest month	14 °C (August)
Number of days with temperature below freezing	33 days
Annual precipitation	1037 mm
Number of days a year with snowfall	70 days
Number of days a year with precipitation	269 days

Source: Shetlands tourist agency, 8. November 2006

Flora

The landscape in Shetland is marked by the grazing of sheep and the rarity of trees. The flora is dominated by arctic-alpine plants, wild flowers, moss and lichen.

Fauna

Shetland is the site of one of the largest bird colonies in the North Atlantic home to more than one million birds. Most birds are found in colonies on Hermaness, Foula, Mousa, Noss, Sumburgh Head and Fair Isle. Some of the birds found on the islands are Atlantic Puffin, Storm-petrel, Northern Lapwing and Winter Wren. Many arctic birds spend the winter on Shetland and among those are Whooper Swan and Great Northern Diver.

Economy

85% of the catch (67 000 tonn) in Shetland is herring and mackerel which is 52% of the catch value. Haddock, cod and angler achieve higher prices and make up the rest of the catch value, even though these species only make up 15% of the catch. Pictured: Mackerel.

Due to the climate the agricultural production in Shetland is well able to sustain the population, making the trade of fish (an abundant commodity in the islands) possible since prehistory.

The main areas of revenue today are agriculture, aquaculture, fishing and petroleum industry (Crude oil and Natural gas production). Farming is mostly connected to raising of Shetland sheep, known for their unusually fine wool, along with the Shetland Sheepdog as well as the Shetland pony. Crops raised include oats and barley; however, the cold, windswept islands make for a harsh environment for most plants. Crofting, the farming of small plots of land on a legally restricted tenancy basis, is still practiced and viewed as a key Shetland tradition as well as important source of income.

North Sea oil rig

More recently, oil reserves discovered in the 20th century out to sea have provided a much needed alternative source of income for the islands. The East Shetland Basin is one of Europe's largest oil fields. Oil produced there is landed at the Sullom Voe terminal in Shetland. Taxes from the oil have increased spending on social welfare, art, sport, environmental measures and financial development. Three quarters of the islands work force is employed in the service sector. Even though oil makes up 15% of the islands' economy, £116 million a year, the fish related industry generates twice as much income and employs three times as many workers..

The last 25 years unemployment has been under 5% and as of 2004 was on 2%, but the fluctuations in the market for farmed salmon and trawled white fish leads to seasonal changes in unemployment.

In January 2007, the Shetland Islands Council signed a partnership agreement with Scottish and Southern Energy for a 200 turbine wind farm and subsea cable. The renewable energy project would produce about 600 megawatts and contribute about £20 million to the Shetland economy per year.

Language

Jakob Jakobsen was a Faeroese linguist and leading documentarist of Norn

The Pictish language was replaced by Old Norse, which evolved into Norn. This is to this day the most prominent remnant of Norse culture on the islands. Almost every place name in use there can be traced back to the Vikings. Norn continued to be spoken until the 18th century when it was replaced by an insular dialect of Scots also known as Shetlandic, which in turn is being replaced by Scottish English. However, the legacy of Norn remains in the grammar and a number of words, making the Shetland dialect a distinctive form of Scots. The use of dialect was actively discouraged in schools, churches and civic life until the late 20th century but islanders now take a pride in their native speech. Efforts are made to retain the use of the dialect and counter influence from Scottish English. ShetlandDictionary.com has been created to help encourage the use of Shetlandic.

Although Norn was spoken for hundreds of years it is now extinct and few written sources remain.

Example of the Lord's Prayer in Shetland Norn:

Shetland Norn

Fy vor or er i Chimeri.

Halaght vara nam dit.

La Konungdum din cumma.

La vill din vera guerde

i vrildin sindaeri chimeri.

Gav vus dagh u dagloght brau.

Forgive sindorwara sin vi forgiva gem ao sinda gainst wus.

Lia wus ikè o vera tempa, but delivra wus fro adlu idlu.

For do i ir Kongungdum, u puri, u glori, Amen

Translation to modern Norwegian

Far vår som er i himmelen!

Heilagt skal namnet ditt vera.

Lat kongedømet ditt koma.

Lat viljen din verta gjort

på jorda som i himmelen.

Gjev oss i dag vårt daglege brød.

Forlat syndene våre, som vi òg forlèt dei som har synda mot oss.

Lei oss ikkje ut i freisting, men frels oss frå alt ille.

For kongedømet er ditt, og makta og æra i all æve. Amen.

English version (not literal translation)

Our Father in heaven,

Hallowed be your name,

Your kingdom come,

Your will be done,

On earth as in heaven.

Give us today our daily bread.

Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.

Save us from the time of trial,

And deliver us from evil.

For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours,

Now and forever. Amen.

For comparison to Orkney Norn and other languages please see: The Lord's Prayer in different languages.

Name

The original Norse name for Shetland was Hjaltland. Hjalt in Old Norse meaning the hilt or crossguard of a sword. As the local language evolved the ja became je as with Norse hjalpa which became hjelpa. Then the pronunciation of the combination of the letters hj changed to sh. This is also found in some Norwegian dialects in for instance the word hjå (with) and the place names Hjerkinn and Sjoa (from *Hjó). Lastly the l before the t disappeared..

As Norn was gradually replaced by Scots Shetland became Template:Latinxetland (the initial letter being the Middle Scots letter, yogh (which can also be found in the forename Menzies, e.g. Menzies Campbell.) This sounded almost identical to the original Norn sound, /hj/). When the letter yogh was discontinued, it was often replaced by the similar-looking letter 'z', hence Zetland, the mispronounced form used to describe the pre-1975 county council.

The earliest recorded name for the islands was Inse Catt, "islands of the Cat people": the same people that Caithness is named after.

Norse names

The old Norse names of the principal islands were:

• Hjaltland (Mainland)
• Jell (Yell) - might be pre-Norse
• Unst - might be pre-Norse
• Fetlar - might be pre-Norse
• Hvalsey (Whalsay) - literally whale island (Hvalsøy/Kvalsøy in modern Norwegian)
• Brusey (Bressay) - most likely named after a Norse nobleman Bruse
• Fugley (Foula) - literally bird's island (Fugløy in modern Norwegian)
• Frjóey (Fair Isle) - literally fertile island (Froøy/Fræøy in modern Norwegian)

Media

Shetland is served by a weekly local newspaper, The Shetland Times, published every Friday and one of the first UK newspapers to publish on the internet in 1996. Radio Shetland, the local opt-out of BBC Radio Scotland, and SIBC, a commercial radio station, broadcast daily.

Other sources include

• The Shetland News an online daily newspaper. A landmark legal case was brought by the Shetland Times against the Shetland News for deep linking to their content. It was settled out of court. [1]
• Shetlink a community centric portal "Connecting Shetland" where people can express opinions on Shetland and related issues.
• Shetlopedia.com The online Shetland Encyclopedia.

Transport

Smyril Lines ferry Norrøna calls regularily at Lerwick

Air plane from Loganair on Fair Isle, midway between Orkney and Shetland

Transport between islands is mainly done by ferry.

Shetland is served by a domestic ferry connection from Lerwick to the mainland, operated by Northlink Ferries to

• Aberdeen

Lerwick also has an international ferry connection operated by Smyril Line to

• Tórshavn, Faroe Islands
• Seyðisfjörður, Iceland
• Bergen, Norway
• Hanstholm, Denmark

The main airport on Shetland is located close to Sumburgh, 40 km south of Lerwick. Loganair operates flights under British Airways to other parts of the British Isles seven times a day. The destinations are Kirkwall, Aberdeen, Inverness, Glasgow and Edinburgh. In the summer months there are also flights to London (Stansted) and the Faeroes operated by the Faeroese airliner Atlantic Airways. A summer route to Bergen operated by Widerøe has been discontinued.

Loganair also flies to Fair Isle, Foula and Out Skerries in Shetland from Tingwall Airport 11 km west of Lerwick.

There are frequent charter flights from Aberdeen to Scatsca (near Sullom Voe) which are used to transport oilfield workers.

People

It is believed that the island group had an original population about which little is known who were replaced or assimilated by the Picts. Historical, archaeological, place-name and linguistic evidence indicates complete Norse cultural dominance of Shetland during the Viking period. It is not known whether the Picts were rapidly assimilated into the Norse population or driven away. A few place names might have Pictish origin, but this is disputed. Several genetic studies have been made comparing the genetic makeup of the islands' population today in order to establish its origin. Shetland has almost identical proportions of Scandinavian matrilineal and patrilineal ancestry (ca 44%). This suggests that the islands were settled by both men and women. This is also found in Orkney and the northern and western coastline of Scotland, but areas of the British Isles further away from Scandinavia show signs of being colonised primarily by males who found local wives. After the islands were transferred to Scotland thousands of Scots families emigrated to Shetland in the 16th and 17th centuries. Contacts with Germany and the Netherlands through the fishing trade brought smaller numbers of immigrants from those countries. World War II and the oil industry have also contributed to population increase through immigration.

Population development

The population development on Shetland has through the times been affected by deaths at sea and epidemics. Smallpox afflicted the islands hard in the 17th and 18th centuries, but as vaccines became common after 1760 the population increased to 40 000 in 1861. The population increase led to a lack of food and many young men went away to serve in the British merchant fleet. 100 years later the islands' population was more than halved. This decrease was mainly caused by the large number of Shetlandic men being torpedoed at sea during the two world wars and the waves of emigration in the 1920s and 1930s. Now more people of Shetlandic background live in Canada, Australia and New Zealand than in Shetland.

District	Population 1961	Population 1971	Population 1981	Population 1991	Population 2001
Bound Skerry (& Grunay)	3	3	0	0	0
Bressay	269	248	334	352	384
Bruray	34	35	33	27	26
East Burra	92	64	78	72	66
Fair Isle	64	65	58	67	69
Fetlar	127	88	101	90	86
Foula	54	33	39	40	31
Housay	71	63	49	58	50
Mainland	13 282	12 944	17 722	17 562	17 550
Muckle Flugga	3	3	0	0	0
Muckle Roe	103	94	99	115	104
Noss	0	3	0	0	0
Papa Stour	55	24	33	33	25
Trondra	20	17	93	117	133
Unst	1 148	1 124	1 140	1 055	720
Vaila	9	5	0	1	2
West Burra	561	501	767	817	753
Whalsay	764	870	1031	1041	1034
Yell	1155	1143	1191	1075	957
Total	17 814	17 327	22 768	22 522	21 990

Kilde: Scottishislands.org.uk, 18. November 2006

Notable Shetlanders

• Arthur Anderson (1792-1868), co-founder of P&O
• Tom Anderson MBE (1910-1991), a fiddler, composer, folklorist and teacher who was a profoundly influential figure in the development of Shetland music
• Willie Hunter (1934-1994), the best all-around example of Shetland fiddling
• Peerie Willie Johnson (b. 1912), a highly renowned pioneer of jazz swing influenced folk guitar who played with the likes of Tom Anderson and Willie Hunter.
• Ian Bairnson (b. 1953), session guitarist (The Alan Parsons Project)
• Aly Bain (b. 1946), fiddle player.
• Sir William Watson Cheyne of Leagarth.[2] (b. 14 December 1852, d. 19 April 1932) Pioneered the development of antiseptic.
• Morgan Goodlad (b. 1950), controversial Chief Executive of Shetland Islands Council (see, for example, Private Eye No 1144 p27, or this story from the Sunday Herald.)
• Sir Herbert John Clifford Grierson (1866-1960), a literary scholar and critic
• Norman Lamont (b. 1942), Conservative MP, Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1990 to 1993.
• Steven Robertson, a theatre and film actor from Vidlin
• Robert Stout (1844 - 1930), Prime Minister of New Zealand on two occasions in the late 19th century
• Astrid Williamson, musician
• Sandra Voe (b. 1936), actress appearing in many small film and TV roles (including Coronation Street) and mother of Pulp keyboard player Candida Doyle.
• Neil Hughes from Seven Up!
• Robert Alan Jamieson (b. 1958), poet and novelist.

Public services

Shetland Islands Council

The Shetland Islands Council provide services in the areas of Environmental Health , Roads, Social Work, Community Development, Organisational Development, Economic Development, Building Standards, Trading Standards, Housing, Waste, Education, Burial Grounds, Fire Service, Port and Harbours and others. The council is allowed to collect Council Tax.

Political composition:

• Independent - 17
• Scottish Liberal Democrats - 5

Schools

In Shetland there is a total of 34 schools: Two High Schools, Seven Junior High Schools with primary and nursery departments, 25 Primary Schools.

• Anderson High School
• Brae High School

Shetland is also home to the North Atlantic Fisheries College

Shetland NHS

The Shetland NHS is the local Scottish health service in the Shetland Islands.

Flag

Flag of Shetland

Roy Grönneberg founded the local chapter of the SNP (Scottish National Party) in 1966 and was active in the struggle for Shetland autonomy. In 1969 he designed the flag of Shetland in cooperation with Bill Adams to mark the 500 year anniversary of the transfer of Shetland from Norway to Scotland..

The reasons behind the design was the desire to illustrate the Shetland had been a part of Norway for 500 years and a part of Scotland for 500 years. The colours are identical to the ones in Flag of Scotland, but shaped in the Nordic cross.

In 1975 the two local authorities in Shetland, Lerwick Town Council and Zetland County Council, were combined in to the Shetland Islands Council. Grönneberg wanted his flag proposal to become the official flag of Shetland, but was unsuccessful. A plebiscite in 1985 also failed give it official status. In 2005 the Lord Lyon King of Arms approved the flag as the official flag of Shetland.

Notable places

• Clickimin broch
• Fort Charlotte
• Jarlshof archaeological site
• Mavis Grind
• Mousa Broch
• Muness Castle the most northerly castle in the United Kingdom
• Old Scatness archaeological site
• Scalloway Castle
• Selivoe
• St Ninian's Isle
• Sullom Voe oil terminal
• Sumburgh Head
• Skaw the most northerly settlement in the United Kingdom

Shetland Islands on film

Michael Powell made The Edge of the World in 1937. This film is a dramatisation based on the true story of the evacuation of the last thirty-six inhabitants of the remote island of St Kilda on 29 August 1930. St Kilda lies in the Atlantic Ocean, 64 kilometres west-northwest of North Uist in the Outer Hebrides; the inhabitants spoke Gaelic. Powell was unable to get permission to film on St. Kilda. Undaunted, he made the film over four months during the summer of 1936 on the island of Foula, in the Shetland Isles. Despite the fact that the Foula islanders speak the Norse-tinged dialect of Shetland, the film loses none of its power.

• The Edge of the World (1937) dramatizes the evacuation of the Islands and the ensuing tragedy.
• Return To The Edge Of The World (1978) was a documentary capturing a reunion of cast and crew of 1937's The Edge Of The World, 40 years after the fact, as they revisit the island.
• The Rugged Island: A Shetland Lyric (1934) at IMDb
• Devil's Gate (2003).
• It's Nice Up North (2006) comedy documentary by Graham Fellows as John Shuttleworth.

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Shetland in Literature

• Raman Mundair, 'A Choreographer's Cartography', Peepal Tree Press, Leeds, 2007, ISBN13: 9781845230517

The first section of this book - 60 degrees north - is a series of poems, some in Shetland dialect, that reflect the poet's experiences of Shetland and offers a unique British Asian perspective to the landscape.

Timeline

Year	Event
3000 BC	First sign of settlement
297 AD	Roman sources mention the Picts
875	Harald Hårfagre took control over the islands
1194	Harald Maddadsson lost the earldom over Shetland and the islands are put directly under the Norwegian king Sverre Sigurdsson
1379	The Scottish earl Henry Sinclair took control over the islands on behalf of the Norwegian king Håkon VI Magnusson
1469	Christian I pawned Shetland to the Scottish king James III
1600s and 1700s	Smallpox hit the islands hard
1700s	Norn language is suppressed by influence from Scottish immigrants
1707	The Hanseatic League lost their trading rights in Shetland
1708	Capital moved from Scalloway to Lerwick
1861	40 000 inhabitants
1880s	William Ewart Gladstone freed the serfs
1940	Shetland bus established by the Special Operations Executive
1961	17 814 inhabitants
1969	Shetland marks 500 years under both Norwegian and Scottish rule
1975	Lerwick Town Council and Zetland County Council merged to Shetland Islands Council
1978	Oil terminal in Sullom Voe opened
2001	21 990 inhabitants
2005	Lord Lyon King of Arms, the heraldic authority of Scotland, approved the blue and white flag of Shetland as an official flag

External links

• VisitShetland.com
• Shetland in Statistics (pdf file)
• Shetland Dialect
• Shetlink - Shetland's Online Community
• Undiscovered Scotland - Shetland Islands
• Shetland Islands Council
• Shetland Scenes
• Virtual Tour of Shetland
• The Lunnasting History Group Homepage - lunnasting.historygroups.net
• Shetlopedia.com - The Shetland Encyclopedia
• ShetlandDictionary.com - The Online Shetland Dictionary
• The Shetland to English Dictionary
• The English to Shetland Dictionary