Shetland January/February 2018

When people find out that we have a house on Shetland, one of the first reactions is often something like “I expect you spend time there in the summer”.  The expectation being that since it’s a long way North it likely to be a snow-blasted near-Arctic wilderness where the locals get periodically polished off by marauding polar bears (except for the ones that are polished off by other locals, see Jimmy Perez for further details).

And truth be told, there are occasional winter days where the place does feel like a snow-blasted near-Arctic wilderness. But they are pretty rare. Yes, it can be a seriously breezy, and fence maintenance is a regular local pastime.

However in the depths of winter you can get splendid weather just as you can get rubbish weather at other times of the year too.

One of the reasons I like being on Shetland in winter is for the days between the storms - I've included a few pictures that give a flavour of Shetland at this time of year.

Rainbow Wave - West Voe of Sumburgh

Compass Head from St Ninian's Isle

Scat Ness - Sunshine and Waves

Snow Clouds over south Shetland

Still weather at St Ninian's Isle

Wave power at Scat Ness

Waves at the Hog of Brei Geo, Scat Ness

Snow-capped Compass Head from Scat Ness

There are more pictures from this Shetland trip on Flickr.