The Noss Boat – Seabird Cliffs and Soup on the Esplanade
A few hours, from Market Cross, Lerwick and back.
The route
Noss is a small island of sheer sandstone cliffs off the east side of Bressay.
From a boat below them you look up at ledges packed with tens of thousands of nesting seabirds, gannets above all, with seals hauled out on the rocks. The Noss Boat leaves from the middle of Lerwick and has you back in time for soup and home baking at the Peerie Shop Café. It's a morning for anyone who loves wildlife, children included, as long as the sea suits them.
Before you go
Book the 9.45am Noss Boat trip with Shetland Seabird Tours online before you go: the scheduled trips run every day from April to the end of September, carry only 12 people and are often full weeks ahead, from £60 for an adult and £25 for under-16s at the time of writing.
The day
Lerwick
A morning out on the water and back on dry land for lunch. A couple of hours round Bressay to the cliffs of Noss, with binoculars in every seat pocket, then a short stroll along the Esplanade for a bowl of soup.
About four hours
Shetland Seabird Tours
From the Market Cross it's a two-minute walk down to the slipway on Victoria Pier, where Shetland Seabird Tours' blue and white Noss Boat leaves. Its scheduled trips run every day from April to the end of September, at 9.45am, 12.45pm and 3.45pm, with no 3.45pm trip on Mondays or Saturdays. Each lasts two to two and a half hours, so book the 9.45 to be back for lunch. It heads round Bressay to Noss, where the Noup, its highest cliff, rises 181 metres and gannets nest by the thousand, with guillemots, puffins in early summer, and seals. There are just 12 seats, so book online, from £60 for an adult and £25 for under-16s at the time of writing. Everyone wears a lifejacket, there's a toilet on board, and every trip depends on the weather. Driving in? Victoria Pier car park is pay-and-display from 8am to 6pm, Monday to Saturday, and closes on some cruise-ship days.
About 3 min on foot
Peerie Shop Café
Lunch
Lunch is three minutes' walk from the pier at the Peerie Shop Café, down Campbell's Closs behind the Peerie Shop on the Esplanade. There's a homemade soup and pie every day and a cake fridge filled each morning, and the boat gives you a discount card for a hot drink or a mug of soup. It's open Tuesday to Friday from 8am and Saturday from 9am, until 4pm, with no booking. If it's full, or on a Sunday, Mareel's café bar on Hay's Dock, north along the waterfront, does sandwiches, wraps and salads.
If it rains
Light rain doesn't stop the boat, so bring a waterproof and a warm layer for the open deck; wind and swell do, and the skipper will ring to move you to another day. The Peerie Shop Café is indoors.
Photograph by Peerie Shop Cafe via Google