Scottish Islands Explorer 40: Nov / Dec 2016

Lerwick
Business Had Shifted
ere was then no castle on Shetland, hence his building in
Scalloway which continued as the focus for local administration
and justice, with courts held there in 1612 and 1613.
By 1708, it ceased to be the archipelago’s capital, although,
as late as 1733, public letters were still draed there, but, by
then, government business had shied to Lerwick.
Its travails included demolition by the Scalloway court in
1615 and 1625, punishment for its ‘illegality’ and alleged
immorality, referring to the infamously drunken and rowdy
annual herring festival. ere appears to have been some
resentment by pious citizens of what went on there, where
‘country people and Hollanders caroused’.
For many years the authorities insisted Lerwick’s shanty
town was ‘fired’ aer the Dutch had le. By 1650, however,
its settlement was looking more permanent, although the
relationship with the Dutch was changing. e first Anglo-
Dutch War broke out in 1652, fought to control trade routes
and colonies.
Another Fortified Site
e response was to build a fort overlooking the harbour.
To add to its woes the Dutch burned the fort in 1673 and the
French set fire to the town in 1702. at bastion is Fort
Charlotte, founded in the 17th Century, then re-built in
1781. Defence has a long history here; another fortified site,
‘Clickimin Broch’ was occupied from the 7th Century BC
to the 6th Century AD.
‘Up-Helly-Aa’ is world-famous as Britain’s biggest and most
spectacular fire-festival. e last Tuesday of January sees a
torch-lit procession of some 1,000 people, burning of a
replica Viking longship and all-night dancing and partying.
Sounds like my kind of shindig - for Scandinavian roots
permeate here.
Commercial Street, parallel to the shore, offers access to the
sea though gaps between buildings. At its south-east end can
be found the lodberries, private piers for unloading goods
into enclosed courtyards and warehouses. Here are 18th
Century warehouses, with their own piers, and foundations
in the sea. Little has changed since the 1700s.
The Edinburgh Sailing
From 1736 it was possible to sail from Lerwick to Leith,
with the service improving in the 1750s as Shetland ponies
were exported to English coalmines. Right up to 1901,
Shetlanders relied on the Edinburgh sailing, as anyone
requiring medical treatment had to get to the city’s Royal
Infirmary. Today ships sail to Kirkwall, Aberdeen,
Scandinavia, Faroe and Iceland.
Most sandstone-buildings on the waterfront date from the
18th Century; a few are older. e narrow main-street and
charming constricted lanes just evolved. e area up beyond
the Hillhead was planned though by Victorian architects,
spacious villas and parks dominated by the Town Hall of the
1880s, financed by the herring trade.
Lerwick may have seen its fishing fleet dwindle, but its
superb natural harbour has found ready compensation,
becoming central to the recent oil boom, with ‘aquiline’ (like
an eagle’s beak) oil-boats competing for space with the
remaining fishing boats. It was from the mid-70s that
Shetland profited from the North Sea, with a massive
terminal constructed at Sullom Voe.
10 SCOTTISH ISLANDS EXPLORER NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2016