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Shetland Islands

St Ninian’s Isle

The sand bar out to the isle, and the treasure found under the chapel.

Welcome

St Ninian's Isle lies off the west coast of the South Mainland near Bigton, joined to the shore by a tombolo of white sand some 500 metres long, with water lapping on both sides.

It is probably the best-known beach in Shetland, and on a fine day the pale sand and blue-green sea could pass for the Mediterranean, with Foula on the far western horizon.

Walk across and up onto the island, and on its far side are the ruins of a 12th-century chapel, built over an earlier church and an Iron Age site before that; people were buried here until the 1800s. On 4 July 1958 Douglas Coutts, a fifteen-year-old schoolboy helping on the dig, lifted a slab marked with a cross and found a box of 28 pieces of Pictish silver from around AD 800: bowls, brooches and fittings, probably hidden when the Vikings came. It is the only complete hoard of fine silver from that time known to survive. The treasure is in Edinburgh, but the chapel site has panels telling its story.

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The Daily for 10 November, from Scotland with love. Aerial view of a concrete road bridge with angled supports spanning a sea loch, twin cloud-wrapped mountain peaks rising behind autumn-coloured hills.
A short drive awayRerwick and Scousburgh SandsTwo beaches on the west side of the South Mainland: seals at Rerwick, white sand and a loch behind Scousburgh.5 min by roadSee itGrey seals hauled out on the pale sand at Rerwick, the sea at the edge.

Before you go

Open at any time and free.

Near Bigton on the west side of the South Mainland; walk across the tombolo and up the path, and the chapel is on the west side of the island. Use the stiles over walls and fences.

Getting there
Bigton, west side of the South Mainland.
Walk
Across the sand and up onto the isle; the chapel is on its west side.
Care
Use the stiles.

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Where it is

St Ninian's Isle, Bigton, ZE2 9JF.

Close byIn the South Mainland.
  1. High cliffs rising from a deep blue sea across the bay from Maywick.MaywickA cliff-wrapped sandy beach a couple of miles from St Ninian's Isle, and usually empty.3 miles 11 min by road
  2. The pale sand and breaking waves of Levenwick bay, green headlands on either side.LevenwickA gently sloping sandy bay in the South Mainland with rock pools at either side, loved by families.4 miles 8 min by road
  3. Inside the Nielanell studio shop in Hoswick: colourful knitwear folded on an old wooden dresser and shelves, with jumpers and wraps hung on mannequins and a painting on the wall.Nielanell4 miles as the crow flies
  4. The long thatched Crofthouse Museum and its stone dykes under a blue sky.Crofthouse MuseumA thatched croft house of the 1870s at Boddam in the South Mainland, with its peat fire and box beds; free, and open in summer.6 miles 13 min by road
  5. The blue and white front of the Hoswick Visitor Centre on the village street.Hoswick Visitor CentreA café, craft shop and fishing and textile archive in the village of Hoswick in the South Mainland.6 miles 14 min by road
Directions
Grey seals hauled out on the pale sand at Rerwick, the sea at the edge.AttractionsRerwick and Scousburgh Sands2.0 miles
Mousa Broch across the sound, seen from the water on the way over from Sandsayre.AttractionsSandsayre Interpretive Centre6.6 miles
Mousa Broch from the air, a round tower on a golden headland above dark rocks and sea.AttractionsMousa Broch6.7 miles
Quendale Mill's stone buildings and water wheel round a gravel yard.AttractionsQuendale Mill7.1 miles
The sweep of sand round the Bay of Quendale beyond a green field.AttractionsQuendale Beach7.2 miles
Visitor walks among stone walls and hearth of an Iron Age broch settlementAttractionsScatness Broch7.9 miles
A reconstructed Iron Age house at Old Scatness, its turf roof and doorway, a cooking pot outside.AttractionsOld Scatness7.9 miles
The stone walls and low passage of the Ness of Burgi blockhouse on its grassy headland.AttractionsNess of Burgi8.6 miles
The round walls of a wheelhouse below the laird's house, Jarlshof.AttractionsJarlshof9.1 miles

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