Shetland

Lerwick Harbour

My first trip to Shetland and I arrived at Sumburgh in the late afternoon on Sunday. Shetland was tinted by a colour palette of greys and accompanied by episodes of rain and a fresh wind.  But being 60 degrees north means that there is a constant refreshment of the weather. Early the next morning the landscape was washed clean and the green hills and grey stone of Lerwick were squeezed between two bands of bright blue. I walked for over an hour before breakfast and was completely captivated by the townscape of Lerwick nestling on the Bressay Sound and almost surrounded by the sea. I met an elderly couple walking around the Knab and they were made up when I told them how privileged they were to have this as their morning walk. The cemetery is executed to perfection with a view across the Bressay Sound to die for.

Although autumn the town was quietly cosmopolitan with people of many nationalities working in the thriving industries of oil, marine engineering, fishing and tourism. In the hotel, an Indian businessman was meeting with a Russian and an American to discuss aeronautical equipment. The waitress was from Kazakhstan and several Scandinavians were passing through. The worldwide network of business that emanates from Shetland seems almost as important to the thriving economy as the natural resources that abound in the North Sea. 

I was spending a couple of days meeting with a colleague who had been asked to manage the Council after it had been found to failing by the Accounts Commission. He wanted me to assist in looking at the underlying causes of its financial and structural difficulties. I met the senior Councillors and began to examine the fairly incriminating evidence that had been issued by the Accounts Commission. There were a lot of issues that needed resolving and after several sessions exploring these, I was asked if I would be prepared to spend a few months helping to address the issues. In effect, I would be riding shotgun for my colleague. 

I returned home to mull over the proposition, a winter in Shetland was not exactly what I had in mind after retiring but the short time I had spent there had whetted my appetite for doing what I always enjoyed most about work, the chance to diagnose problems and find solutions that improved an organisation for the benefit of its communities. And the chance to explore some wild landscapes whilst working with wildsome but friendly people.

Commercial Street

Town Hall

South Lerwick from the Knab

Lerwick Cemetery

Lerwick over an upturned boat