Day 12 - Lerwick and South East Shetland

May 13, 2025

We slept in this morning and took our time over breakfast. We visited a little shopping centre near where we are staying and found some interesting shops. We then walked to Clickinim Loch, a small lake in the centre of Lerwick which has the remains of a Broch on it. It is not in the most attractive of locations as it is surrounded on 3 sides by buildings including Tescos. There were a few birds on the water including a cormorant, mute swan, grebes and some mallards.

While walking alongside the loch we saw an otter. It kept surfacing and then quickly going underwater again so difficult to take photos of. I got a couple of stills and videos. A local, walking his dog, asked us what we had seen. He was surprised to find there was an otter there and then he saw it for himself. He said there cant be many fish in that loch. We assumed the otter would cross the road back to the sea if it wasnt finding any food.

Loch Clickinim, from the most scenic point

Mute Swan - its mate was sitting on a nest on the island.

Cormorant but looks more like the Loch Ness Monster

Otter, just as it started its dive

Otter

Otter diving

The otter moved further away from us so we carried on to the Broch. This was thought to have been built about 2400 years ago and had a more complex design that the ones we saw on Orkney last year. This one had an outer wall around the broch and would have had several floors as there were stone steps in a few locations.

The Clickinim Broch showing the outer wall

Inside the Broch

Entrance to the inner chamber (excuse Pauls backside

but shows how low we had to get down to enter it)

Grass area between the Broch and the outer wall

The Broch from the outer wall

We saw a small convenience store at a garage near the lake, went in and they were selling a lot of local produce. I bought some "Girdle Bannocks " which are like a soft flattish bread. I am not sure how you are supposed to eat them but I just put some butter on and they were very nice.

It clouded over and the wind got up and for the first time since we have been here I felt quite cold. We came back to our accomodation and had lunch.

It started to brighten up mid afternoon so we took a short drive south. To the west there are are high hills and few roads. There are more hamlets and views of the sea to the east.

We drove to the Greenmow peninsula and stopped at a caravan park at Aithsvoe and had a coffee. There were a few caravans and camper vans here. There was also a small, sheltered marina with several boats moored.

Aithsvoe marina

Little hamlet of Aithsvoe

Advert for eggs? We wondered if they laid to order

Twite or female Linnet

Black Guillemots

Male black guillemot diving into clear waters of the harbour.

You can see its feet and its white patches under the water until it surfaces.

We then found a parking area next to a cemetry at South Voxter overlooking the rocks of Longa Skerry and Wester Skerry. The cemetary had some headstones with moving messages. We mostly stayed in the car and looked out to sea.