A day in Whalsay

Whalsay, meaning whale island in Old Norse, is a small, tight-knit island community with a population of about 1,000 off Shetland’s east coast. Whalsay’s economy and heritage are deeply rooted in fishing, enjoying relative prosperity brought in by the nets of the local fishing fleet, comprising eight pelagic boats, a handful of whitefish, and other inshore vessels.

To get to Whalsay, drive to Laxo, 20 miles north of Lerwick and take the inter-island ferry across to Symbister. The ferry crossing takes about 25 minutes, and booking is advisable as it’s a busy route, particularly for locals travelling back and forth to the mainland.

Arriving in Symbister Harbour feels like everyday Shetland, without any of the airs and graces put on for the benefit of visitors. Whalsay is authentically and proudly Shetland. It’s a welcoming place with a traditional fishing vibe that has otherwise been lost to the rest of Shetland.

The harbour itself is a beautiful, chaotic and colourful array of wealth and industry with everything from small two-oared punts to the great pelagic super trawlers of over 80 metres in length – and everything in between. Creels and pickups line the pier, and the regular ferry activity means the harbour is never silent. Symbister House dominates the port, looking down on the community from the heights of the surrounding hill. Built in 1823, the house was home to the lairds who ruled over the island and its inhabitants throughout the 19th century.

The island is around 7.5 square miles, with a road that makes an entire loop of the island, so it’s almost impossible to get lost.

Today, Whalsay offers an opportunity to experience somewhere authentically Shetland that has retained much of its language, cultural identity and heritage, which has, in many ways, been eroded and lost in many other areas of the islands. Whalsay itself is less explored and doesn’t outwardly push or pursue tourism in the ways other areas of Shetland do. That does not mean the island gives visitors the cold shoulder.

Accommodation in Whalsay is limited, and those places that offer self-catering generally only provide it within a small circle of friends and family. However, one place opened to public bookings late in 2022.

The Auld Manse is a manse lovingly renovated to create self-catering accommodation and a welcoming cafe for the island. The Auld Manse has fantastic views across Linga Sound towards the uninhabited island of Linga.

Grieve House Böd was home to poet Hugh MacDiarmid in the 1930s. He lived in this small croft house at Sodom, and it is here that he is said to have penned some of his best work.

The Oot Ower Lounge at Livister is a facility that offers both self-catering chalet accommodation and campsite hookups. Tents, caravans, motorhomes, and small campervans are accepted at this site, and electric hookups are available. Toilets and showers are available onsite. The bar is open several days a week, and a Chinese restaurant visits the isle most weekends for takeaway food.

The Auld Manse has a cafe in Whalsay, offering simple fare in a stunning, modern setting. Championing local food and coffee, The Auld Manse is a good place for lunch.

Whalsay Heritage Centre offers visitors tea and coffee-making facilities.

A local Chinese restaurant visits the island most weekends, providing takeaway meals from the Oot Ower Lounge at Livister.

Shops – Whalsay’s shops – like many rural shops – are fantastic, selling everything from a needle to an anchor. The two island shops are JWJ Whalsay Ltd and Tetley and Anderson.

Shoard: Arguably the best charity shop in Shetland, Shoard has a reputation for being THE place to find a bargain. Occupying the old school at Brough, Shoard raises money for the local community and was set up by Whalsay Disability and Special Needs Support Group in 1989. Shoard – coming from the local word for a prop or support – is an island institution, with people visiting Whalsay from all over Shetland with the singular intention of visiting the shop. Whether it’s a wetsuit or a spider plant, a washing machine or a spanner, Shoard is sure to have it. Check opening hours as the shop is only open several days a week for a few hours.

Top tip: Whalsay’s grocery shops are incredibly well-stocked and are the perfect place to pick up an island picnic. Look out for honesty boxes selling eggs, cakes and jams.

One of the first things you’ll spot as you leave the ferry at Symbister is the small stone-built booth, or böd, as it’s known locally. This building was used as a trading booth by Hanseatic merchants who came to Shetland from ports such as Hamburg, Bremen and Lübeck to trade stockfish – dried whitefish such as ling and cod. The merchants would arrive around May and set up trading posts in the form of small stone (or wooden) booths where they would conduct their business. Each trader returned to the same spot every summer, and the local fishermen would have greatly anticipated their arrival. The merchants brought salt with them to cure the fish before export, and they would have left with ships laden with salt fish in late August. For about 500 years, the Hanseatic League and German merchants were Shetland’s main trading partners.

The Böd in Whalsay was renovated in 1984 and now houses a small interpretative centre detailing the history of the Hanseatic League and German merchants in Shetland over the years. The Böd is generally kept locked, with a key available in the house next door or from the shop up the road. A sign on the entrance points visitors in the direction of the key.

Whalsay has long been an important fishing community. Spend a little time at Symbister Harbour and look at the variety of boats still fishing from the isle today, from the enormous supertrawlers to the small, wooden, inshore creel boats, before heading to the Heritage Centre beside Symbister House, now the island’s school.

The Heritage Centre is an excellent place to find out more about the local history, culture and local tourist information. The centre has an annual and permanent exhibition looking at Whalsay through the ages.

The Heritage Centre, which opened in 2006, is the community’s heritage hub, a rich collection of trinkets, treasures and all the accumulated stories and artefacts of life from over 5,000 years of habitation on the island. The centre’s fishing display is a permanent exhibition documenting the growth and changes in the fishing industry over the years. For an island so dependent on fishing, it would seem counterintuitive not to celebrate and mark it.

The Heritage Centre is in the renovated farmer’s house adjacent to Symbister House. The island’s Bruce lairds built Symbister House and the surrounding buildings. The lairds first came to the island in 1572, but the haa, or house, wasn’t started until around 1820. Stone was quarried from Stavaness on the Shetland Mainland, and in the courtyard’s centre, a three-storey building dominates the complex, once housing the laird’s high-level toilet.

Whalsay has the UK’s most northerly golf course at Skaw. This 18-hole course in the north of the isle, bordered by the sea on each side, offers superb views and an abundance of wildlife. The course is very exposed moorland, with spectacular clifftop scenery. However, if the wind picks up – as is often the case in Shetland – you can face some rather tricky shots from the tees. Even non-golfers can walk the course for the sights and sounds of the coastal peninsula. Club competitions are often played here, and the clubhouse has a bar open for various events throughout the year. Guests are welcome to play the course for a nominal fee, with details inside the club.

From Brough, head down to Kirk Ness, where Whalsay Parish Church stands proud at the end of a beautiful, picture-perfect sand tombolo. The graveyard is where you’ll find the War Memorials commemorating the island lives lost in the First and Second World Wars. The beach and surrounding headland are a tempting walk, but be aware that, throughout the summer months, this is an important breeding ground for Arctic terns who will swoop and dive, preventing access as they rear their noisy young.

Whalsay, like elsewhere in Shetland, is rich in archaeology and has been inhabited since Neolithic times. Evidence of the first farmers can be seen at Yoxie and the Beenie Hoose at Pettigarth’s Field. These Neolithic stone remains sat on Whalsay’s east coast and were excavated in the 1950s. The first farmers to Shetland arrived between 4,000 and 5,000 years ago, introducing agriculture and farming practices that characterise this period. Much of Shetland’s prehistoric Neolithic landscape can be mapped and traced back by the evidence they left behind in the form of field boundary systems that still run through the hills, a glimpse into the lives of the first settlers.

Further evidence of Whalsay’s prehistoric past can be seen on the Loch of Huxter, where the remains of an Iron Age block fort still stand on an island within the loch and date back some 2,000 years.

The Viking settlers, arriving here from the 9th century, named Whalsay the whale island, probably due to its profile on the horizon. With an abundance of outlying rocks and tidal sounds, Whalsay is a fantastic place to look out for seals, otters, and, if you’re lucky, porpoises, minke whales or orca. Shetland’s otters feed on the coastal fringes and, although they’re not sea otters, they are at home along the shore. It’s also possible to see puffins on cliffs at the south of the island, walking from Clett.

Whalsay’s coastline is reasonably accessible and relatively easy to walk, with some fantastic walks along the way. Why not try:

Symbister to Clett coastal walk

Skaw coastal walk (around the golf course)

Challister Ness

Explore the ruined remains of the former settlement at Treawick on the east coast of Whalsay

Remember, when walking, follow the Scottish Outdoor Access Code.

So much of the allure of Whalsay comes from the deep-rooted sense of community within the island. The people are friendly and welcoming and maintain a strong sense of identity. Catherine Munro’s memoir The Ponies at the Edge of the World explores Whalsay through her experience of arriving in the island as an ‘incomer’. Her words offer a beautiful portrayal of this incredible, beautiful, otherworldly island that sits off Shetland’s east coast.