It was our hard-working Icelandic horse trainer’s, Egill Þórarinsson, last day – he is on tonight’s boat south for a connecting flight back home to Iceland – so today we took him down to the south end to see a different part of Shetland.

Yesterday was the spectacular cliffs of Eshaness, in the north of the mainland, but I was not the driver.

First stop, Fladdabister – an unusual Shetland settlement, with apparent Dutch influence created from very different Shetland stone and method.

I love this little hamlet in Shetland.  So very different from everywhere else.

(someone’s rhubarb is about to start – note-to-self, must check on mine – roll on the crumble!)

Then a diversion to the beautiful sandy St Ninian beach.

This tombolo leads to St Ninian’s Isle home of the famous St. Ninian’s chapel.  ~Twenty eight Pictish silver and silver-gilt objects, all decorated and made during the second half of the eighth century, were found in 1958 by a school boy. They were found in a wooden box buried under a cross-marked slab close to the altar along with a fragment of the jaw bone of a porpoise.  The silver is on display at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh.  It should be in Shetland where it came from, in my opinion, not a copy.

And so on to Sumburgh Head.

Always a bit jaw-droppingly impressive, any time of the year.

The puffins are not back yet but the seabirds were around in their masses.  I think these are razorbills.

We walked around the outside of the lighthouse.  It was all closed until the tourist season officially begins after Easter.

I haven’t been down to the south end this time of year and it was nice to have it to ourselves.  Soon the migrant birds will flock in to nest, as will the twitching tourists.