VisitShetland

Culture

From Scandinavia and Scotland

Shetland's earliest inhabitants, around 6,000 years ago, appear to have had a highly developed aesthetic sense, to judge by the extraordinarily beautiful polished stone axes found in archaeological sites.

Other artefacts such as pottery, soapstone bowls, bone combs, fishing gear and jewellery, testify to our prehistoric ancestors' practical skills and artistic abilities.

Cairns And Roundhouses

Chambered cairns and roundhouses show that early Shetlanders were accomplished architects, building designs rooted in religious beliefs and social organisation. The achievements of the island stonemasons peaked in the hundred or so brochs scattered round the coastline, most of them apparently built between 2,500 and 2,000 years ago.

Clickimin Broch

Christianity

Christianity probably arrived in Shetland around the year 500AD, by which time most brochs had long fallen into disuse and life seems to have been more peaceful. The religious art of the Pictish period includes the celebrated sculptured stones from Bressay and Burra Isle, carved with Ogham runes that have so far proved indecipherable.

Skilled Metalworkers

The hoard of ornate silverware in the St Ninian's Isle Treasure appears to have been buried around the time of the pagan Norse conquest in the late eighth century. If these exquisite bowls and ornaments were made locally, it shows that metalworkers of consummate skills were living in Shetland. Other finds suggest that this was indeed so.

The Viking Period

Excavations from the Viking period show the invaders were just as appreciative of good design. Magnificently decorated swords, clasps and brooches speak of Viking taste for finery. From Viking times also come the first records of Shetland's spoken culture - not just in the occasional saga references to Shetland but also in the thousands of local place names, almost all of which are Norse, and in the hundreds of dialect words still in daily use, particularly in connection with nature, livestock, farming, fishing, boats, the sea and the weather.

The Spoken Word

Some of Shetland's dialect folklore must have been lost, together with ancient dances and songs, but enough survived to be collected in the late 19th century (notably by the Faroese philologist Jakob Jakobsen) and show how rich this oral culture once was.

Preserving Shetland's Heritage

Most of the surviving folk stories have now been preserved and published, thanks in part to the oil money that became available through the Shetland Arts Trust in the last decades of the 20th century.

The use of dialect was actively discouraged in schools, churches and civic life until the late 20th century but islanders now take a pride in their native speech. The arts trust and BBC Radio Shetland have done much to encourage this. Dialect writing, kept alive by the Shetland Folk Society and the quarterly New Shetlander magazine, revived in the 1980s as funds became available to encourage local writers. There is now a large Shetland Booklist in print and local collectors bid keenly for antiquarian books about the islands.

What's in a place-name...

Work continues on collecting and analysing Shetland's vast treasure store of place-names. In the long centuries when few islanders could read and only the very rich had maps (and those very inaccurate) everyone had to carry several thousand place-names in his or her head - all the detailed geographical information that enabled them to take part in a subsistence economy.

Thus there are dozens of place-names describing in great detail where to find different food species (from seals and seabirds to wild berries, fish and shellfish); explaining how the landscape was used for herding, grazing and crops (for example the many 'punds', or enclosures, and 'bools', or sheltered spots); and identifying different kinds of terrain, from 'heogs' (rocky hilltops) to 'houbs' (sheltered, shallow bays).

For more information see the article 'What's in a Shetland Name?' by Allen Fraser.

World Music

Shetland Fiddle Frenzy

Shetland's fiddle music is world-famous with a tradition stretching back generations. The distinctive Shetland sound is a blend of many influences, including ancient Norwegian folk music, Scots reels, jigs and slow airs, and tunes brought home by sailors from Ireland, Germany, North America and even Greenland.

Pub Music

As well as traditional fiddle groups there are dozens of local dance, jazz and rock bands, which can all be heard regularly in Shetland's pubs.

Today, organisations such as the Shetland Arts Trust, the Shetland Fiddle and Accordian Club and the Shetland Folk Festival Society draw high calibre musicians from around the world to perform throughout the islands.

... more about music

Artistic inspiration

The landscape and the clear, northern light of Shetland have inspired hundreds of artists, from the 19th century illustrator John Reed and some of the Scottish Colourists in the early 20th century to modern artists such as Brian Henderson, Liam O'Neill, Gail Harvey, Mei Lo So, Ron Sandford and Jim Tait, all currently in Shetland.

Art And Architecture

The splendid Victorian stained glass windows in Lerwick Town Hall have their modern counterparts in stained glass work by Patrick Ross-Smith in Fair Isle. There are several local art galleries, including the Bonhoga Gallery at the converted Weisdale Mill, the Burravoe Ha' gallery in Yell, Lerwick's commercial Vaila Fine Arts and the rotating exhibitions at the Shetland Museum Gallery, also in Lerwick.

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2009 Photo Competition

VisitShetland is pleased to announce the launch of their 5th annual photocompetition.  This year's theme is 'Shetland's Wild Side'.

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Upcoming Event: Shetland Nature Festival

Shetland's 2nd Nature Festival is set to start this Friday until 12th July.  Don't miss this opportunity to join a variety of specialised wildlife tours with local rangers, photography sessions and expert talks.

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Geopark Shetland Celebrates Shetland Nature Festival

Building on the success of the launch of the Volcano Trail and Geopark Shetland website, Geopark Shetland is holding a number of exciting events to celebrate this years’ Shetland Nature Festival.

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Shetland Museum and Archives seeks information on Emigrants for Hamefarin Exhibition

In 2010, Shetland will host a Hamefarin (homecoming), welcoming Shetlanders from all around the world back to their home islands.  As part of the celebrations Shetland Museum and Archives is developing a special exhibition and are appealing for images and objects relating to Shetland emigrants. (Above photo:  Laurence and Ester Ward on Daytona Beach, Florida, USA, August 1954)

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