#Lerwick

[jillraggett]

Plant of the Day

Thursday 29 June 2023

Walking along the main road into Lerwick, Shetland, my friend and I noticed this amazing group of Dactylorhiza purpurella (northern marsh-orchid) which had colonised this dry embankment which was part of a car park landscaping. This orchid is normally found in marshy fields, roadside verges, fens, marshes and sand-dune slacks that remain damp throughout the year but plants will grow in drier places such as old waste tips, abandoned quarries and apparently car parks.

Jill Raggett

[vox-anglosphere]

A Viking ship goes up in flames during spectacular Up Helly Aa night

[pisaliv08]

[maypoleman1]

28th January

Sir Francis Drake/ Up Helly A’

Sir Francis Drake. Source: The Guardian

Sir Francis Drake died on this day in 1596. The famed soldier, explorer, courtier and adventurer was also rumoured to have been in league with the devil. He owed his nautical skills to a satanic pact, it is said. When the Armada approached, Drake was rumoured to have cut slivers of wood from a tree and magically launched them onto the ocean as a fleet of fire ships to disrupt the Spanish galleons. The storms that did so much to wreck King Philip II’s expedition to remove Queen Elizabeth from her throne, was also apparently instigated by Drake who got a coven of witches at Devil’s Point at Devonport to summon up wind and rain to disperse the enemy ships. Apparently, while away exploring North America a devilish assistant informed Sir Francis that his deserted wife was marrying another man. Drake fired a canon through the earth and the canon ball emerged in the church in between the happy couple who soon cancelled their wedding plans.

Up Helly A’. Source: viator website

On the last Tuesday in January (the 30th in 2024), the Up Helly A’ fire festival is held at Lerwick, on Shetland. The name of the festival is translated as ‘end of the Holy Days’ and is supposed to trace its origins back to old Norse celebrations marking the end of the winter feasts of Yule. The highlight of the event is a procession of some 500 men marching in full Viking regalia through the streets, led by Guiser Jarl, bearing firelit torches. At the harbour, fireworks are set off and the torches thrown into a launched longship, commemorating the Viking practice of a warrior’s funeral. Although Up Helly A’ has all the appearances of a genuine Norse survival, it does not appear to date back any further than the early eighteenth century. It is nontheless the earliest of several such festivals across Shetland over the forthcoming weeks, celebrating, perhaps a little prematurely, the end of winter.

[smellofwater]

Clickimin Broch - Lerwick

Clickimin Broch timeline a late Bronze Age house, outbuilding and enclosure an early Iron Age enclosed site, consisting of a stout wall with a shallow ditch across the isthmus connecting the islet to the mainland a middle Iron Age broch, with later alterations, and a blockhouse with a central passage and cells erected within the ring-fort a later Iron Age wheelhouse-type building, inserted…

[atsvensson]

Storbritanniens största fiskebåtar 2022

Storbritanniens största fiskebåtar 2022

De största fiskebåtarna i Storbritannien är i huvudsak pelagiska fiskebåtar som är hemmahörande i Fraserburgh, Peterhead och på Shetlandsöarna. De sistnämnda kan ha Lerwick eller nån hamn på ön Whalsay som exempelvis Symbister som hemmahamn. Den allra största båten är dock en demersal fiskebåt, H 72 Frank Bonefaas. Den enda övriga stora demersala fiskebåten är H 7 Kirkella. De flesta stora…

[sailingxtrip]

At the southernmost end of the Shetlands. Sumburgh Head. @xtrip_sailing #shetland #lerwick #scotland #travelwithbus #boatlife #sailing (hier: Sumburgh Head Lighthouse) https://www.instagram.com/p/CjTjvTTrYS2/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[beauty-proof]

[theworldatwar]

A British Saro S.36 Lerwick undergoes trials - Oban, Scotland 1938. The Saro proved to have poor water and air handling characteristics so the 21 that were completed only served with the RAF until 1941

[usafphantom2]

[vox-anglosphere]

Norse celebrants parade through Lerwick during Up Helly Aa night

[jillraggett]

Plant of the Day

Saturday 22 July 2023

On the seashore outside Lerwick, Shetland, the wild Crambe maritima (sea kale, sea cabbage, sea colewort) was in full flower. This coastal tolerant herbaceous perennial forms a clump of large, wavy blue-green leaves, surrounded by dense racemes of small white honey-scented flowers.

Jill Raggett

[pisaliv08]

[alistairs]

Once we get to Lerwick, a few of us plan to test the achievements of the local distillery.

[itsloriel]

Magical Scotland

Lerwick, Shetland

Photo: @travel.in.scotland

[fjordfolk]

people claiming modern breeding ruined the shetland sheepdog always posting Lerwick Rex

but never Aberdeen Noreen 😞