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  • The legendary Unst bus shelter

    Unst is the most northerly island in Shetland, and indeed Britain. Two ferry rides away from Mainland, on which we live and breathe and have our being. Just north of Baltasound, the biggest township, you will find this fully-furnished bus shelter, maintained by local lad Bobby Macaulay, who has his own website at http://www.unstbusshelter.shetland.co.uk/ I…

  • Cold spring harbour

    The weather has turned really nasty all of a sudden, and for the past four days we’ve had hail, snow and all kinds of meteorological mayhem.This has wreaked havoc on the lambing, which happens later in Shetland than anywhere else in the UK. Baby sheep have been dying all over the place this weekend, and…

  • How to make an anchor: it’s been an amazing weekend in the People’s Republic of Hillswick: My neighbour, blacksmith Bruce Wilcock, has masterminded the hand-forging of a full-size naval anchor, using Victorian technology. The local Amenity Trust paid for three top Yorkshire blacksmiths to come to Shetland, and with Bruce and a local Shetland smith,…

  • Mountains in Shetland…and politics for pets

    This is the current Nippy Sweetie, for some reason(!) unavailable on the Shetland Times website… I know the Labour candidate likes dogs, because he was in our house the other day, and gave Quoyle the (now rather stinky) black Labrador a cuddle. And the cat. I did not allow him to cuddle me. The Great…

  • The glory that is Center Parcs…or at least, the food.We went to the Lake District for our (late) Easter holidays, and I rediscovered the wonders of Keswick and Derwentwater (every childhood Easter holiday, I was taken there). We stayed at the Oasis Center Parcs complex near Penrith, which is, on the whole, excellent in a…

  • Meet Lunch, Dinner and Omelette. One goose and two ganders. Not that we knew they were ganders when they arrived. Lunch and Dinner have only been joined by Omelette recently, and seem a bit bamboozled by female company, to be honest, preferring to strut and posture, intimidate the hens and screech at every passing car.…

  • Back fae Grangemouth

    Grangemouth is a wee bit like a neat, cleaned-up, early-seventies version of the steeltown that forms the backdrop to the first half of The Deerhunter. The (formerly) BP chemical plant and refinery doesn’t so much overhang the place as occupy a great chunk of it. And at night it is truly spectacular. I’m astonished it…

  • …and this is the Barn of Bannocks earlier today, which by the way is absolutely gorgeous. A touch chilly, and getting windier (not so good as I have to get the boat south tonight) but bright in that awesome way you only get in Shetland during spring. I went for a walk along the Eshaness…

  • This is the interior of the Barn of Bannocks, in the garden of my house in Shetland, from where the Tom Morton Show (www.bbc.co.uk/radioscotland) is broadcast nationally, internationally and cybernautically. I’ve just acquired some digital gear which came from a redundant independent TV studio, and the sound quality is now (I think) indistinguishable from ‘proper’…

  • A fine day on the Hillswick Ness, looking north over to Eshaness, with our house looming whitely. The winter darkness is now officially receding. Roll on the ‘simmer dim’!