Lerwick; Sunday, 07 August, 2005

First stop of the morning was a massive 20 yard walk from the Hotel. Seeing I was staying at the Fort Charlotte guest house, I couldn't really not visit Fort Charlotte. Re-built by George III (The mad one) and named after his queen, this fort was built to protect the harbour at Lerwick from Dutch raids.

The site itself these days is still used by the Territorial Army as a base, so none of the buildings are open to the public, only the grounds. The views over the sound and the town are stunning.

From there I had a wander around town for a while, but on a Sunday in the Scottish Islands nothing, not even a Café is open! So after about an hour of wandering around I went back to the hotel to have a couple of cups of coffee and read a book for a while, before going for the sightseeing tour.

The tour ran round many parts of the North and West of the main island taking in many stunning views including several of the smaller western islands. About half-way round the tour stops for refreshments at a Sunday tea service (according to the driver, who is also the guide, there are many of these every Sunday across the islands). After tea the tour continued back towards Lerwick, diverting via Tingwall to go past the site of the ancient Viking parliament (or ting) and Scalloway. The only negative side to the tour was that it didn’t actually stop for people to be able to take photos; it was a just over 3 hour drive with a 45 minute stop for tea!

By the time we got back into Lerwick it was time for a small dinner (there had been quite a lot of snacky food at the tea).