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People

Shetland's People

Because of the fish trade Shetland was never as remote as the map would suggest, even in the days of sail and oar. Far from being an isolated backwater, at times the islands have been more like a North Atlantic cross-roads.

Shetland has seen many invaders as well as traders. The first inhabitants appear to have been a warlike bunch - by 2,500 years ago almost every community in the islands had built itself a broch (a round, stone tower) to serve as a refuge from seemingly frequent attacks - either by neighbours or by incomers.

Before The Vikings

By the time our Viking ancestors arrived, about 1200 years ago, Shetland belonged to people the Norse called 'Petta' - Picts. They may very well have ousted the previous Shetlanders. The fate of the Picts is unknown but the absence of any trace of their language, apart from a few (mostly disputed) place names, strongly suggests that they either fled south or were killed.

A few may have lingered for a generation or two in remote spots (like Pettester, 'the Picts' farm', in Unst and Pettadaal, 'the Picts' valley', in the central Mainland) but most of them simply disappeared. Scholars still debate whether it was a case of assimilation or genocide.

Scottish Influence

By the latter part of Shetland's Viking Age some of the ruling families were half Norwegian and half Scots. In those days the distinction would not have mattered much anyway. Scotland's influence grew steadily. The takeover was much more gradual than the Viking invasion and Shetlanders were still speaking their Norn, the local dialect of Old Norse, in the 17th century, two hundred years after the islands were mortgaged to Scotland by the Danish-Norwegian king to complete his daughter's dowry.

Immigration

Thousands of Scots families emigrated to Shetland in the 16th and 17th centuries, first the royal officials, tax-gatherers and rent-collectors, followed by ministers, merchants, fishermen and tradesmen. By the early 18th century few of the Norse 'udallers' (small, landed proprietors) survived. Most Shetlanders had become feudal tenants of Scots lairds under Scots Law, speaking a dialect of Scots laced with thousands of Norwegian words.

Crofthouse at Boddam

Contacts with Germany and the Netherlands through the fishing trade brought smaller numbers of immigrants from those countries. Sometimes shipwrecked sailors or naval deserters settled in the islands. But well into the 19th century most Shetlanders would have had four Shetland-born grandparents.

Genealogy

There had been some emigration as early as the 18th century but economic distress in the 1840s saw large numbers leaving. By the end of the century thousands of Shetlanders settled in Canada, Australia and New Zealand, where to this day there are large communities who preserve their connection with 'The Old Rock'. 'Hamefarin' (literally, 'going home') brings hundreds of 'exiles' and their descendants back to Shetland every year and 'reddin up kin' keeps local genealogists busy.

Demographic Peak

While some were leaving, others were arriving. Large-scale immigration, mostly of fisherfolk from north-east Scotland, resumed in the late 1800s, some time after Shetland's population had peaked in 1861, at around 30,000. The cause was the huge boom in drift-net fishing for herring, starting in the 1890s and continuing until the 1st World War. This new influx was most marked in the rapidly-growing town of Lerwick.

Population Decline

War losses, and emigration in the post-war economic slump, caused serious population decline in the 1920s and 30s, even though some servicemen posted to Shetland decided to stay on when the war was over. The same happened after the 2nd World War, but this time there had been 20,000 troops billeted here and many more of them stayed after the end of hostilities.

So although the population decline continued until second half of the 20th century (hitting a low of just over 17,000 in 1971), the people of Shetland were more of a mixture after 1945 than they had been before. Even so, almost everyone could still speak or at least understand the distinctive Shetland dialect, despite the efforts of teachers and ministers to stamp it out.

Social Impact Of Shetland's Oil

The discovery of oil in 1972 changed everything. In just 10 years the population went up by over a third, not counting over 7,000 construction workers housed in temporary camps. Marriages to non-islanders became much more common and the oil business brought in many families with no previous Shetland connections, who often found they liked it and decided to stay.

Playing at the beach

International Shetland

As a result, Shetland today is a diverse and lively community, whose citizens have roots in dozens of different countries, ranging from Norway, Russia and Bulgaria to the Philippines, China and Pakistan, as well as all four nations of the British Isles.

Perhaps only half of the present population had three or four Shetland-born grandparents. At least a third of us have no Shetland ancestors at all - being 'soothmoothers' (i.e. people who came in the south mouth of Lerwick Harbour).

Despite this, prejudice and racism are unusual and there's a very strong community spirit, reflected in the response to charitable appeals and the astonishing fact that a county of just 22,000 people manages to run more than 500 voluntary organisations of various kinds.

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