VisitShetland

Bressay

Bressay - Sandstone and Prehistoric Telecoms

Bressay has almost everything that Shetland can offer the visitor: a seven minute ferry ride whisks you from the bustling centre of Lerwick to another world - a quiet, rural island with beautiful scenery, friendly people and fascinating wildlife.

Here are seabird cliffs, quiet bays, hill and coastal walks, a dozen freshwater lochs (many with good trout) and a profusion of archaeological and historical sites. The east side of the island is sparsely inhabited, a place of peace and quiet where birds and sheep wander undisturbed.

If you're pressed for time and would like to 'do Shetland in a day', then Bressay is the place for you. But we hope you'll be able to spend a little longer with us and see it all!

Getting There and Getting Around

The Bressay ferry Leirna sails from Albert Buildings in the centre of Lerwick every hour from 7.15am to 11pm, with later sailings on Friday and Saturday nights.

The ferry berths in Bressay right next to the Bressay Heritage Centre which features seasonal exhibitions on the culture, history and natural heritage of the island. The centre is open part time from May to September (details from the Tourist Information Centre in Lerwick).

Nearby is the Maryfield Hotel, a 19th century house built by the notorious estate factor John Walker who was responsible for many Clearances in Shetland. Nowadays the hotel is noted for its good food and good company.

Much of Bressay is accessible by car on the single-track roads which radiate from the shop and post office at Mail (the place-name means "the sands" and long pre-dates the Royal Mail). The side roads are rough tracks unsuitable for cars and the best way to enjoy the wild east side of the island is on foot. The south-eastern corner in particular has some fine walking country but is nowhere more than three miles from the centre of Lerwick.

Two Thousand Years of Telecommunications

Bressay shelters Lerwick Harbour from the North Sea and for many centuries Bressay Sound has been a port of refuge for shipping, since long before Lerwick was founded in the 17th century. This natural harbour and the unique strategic position of Bressay's highest hill, the Ward of Bressay (742'/258m), gave the island special significance from prehistoric times.

The ancients sent signals by bonfires lit on hills like the Ward. In clear weather, the beacon could send messages around Shetland in less than an hour - not very complicated messages but enough to raise the alarm when raiders and invaders appeared over the horizon. In the late 8th century marauding Vikings called this hill Pettavird - "the Picts' lookout hill". The name survives in the modern crofts of Pettifirth.

From the summit, all of Shetland is visible: on a clear day, with binoculars, you can see through the natural arch in the Gaada Stack on Foula, away west on the Atlantic coast); to the east lie Out Skerries; to the north Ronas Hill and Saxa Vord (Unst); and to the south Sumburgh Head. Most importantly, you can also see Fair Isle. From there you can see Orkney and from Orkney you can see mainland Scotland. Like the light from prehistoric beacons, today's TV and VHF radio news travels in a straight line from Scotland to Orkney to Fair Isle to Bressay.

The island is mostly made of Old Red Sandstone, around 350 million years old. In the cliffs are superb rock exposures showing endless layers of pebbles, sand, silt and mud - all laid down in a river delta fringing high mountains at a time when Shetland was on the latitude of modern-day Angola. During the slow drift of the continents the Bressay sandstone has been faulted and in places smashed apart by volcanic gas explosions - creating a type of breccia, or broken rock, which can be seen on the shore at Noss Sound.

Bressay's bedrock splits easily into a fine building stone seen everywhere in drystane dykes and old croft buildings. Abandoned 19th century quarries in Aith Ness and along the cliffs recall the days when much of Lerwick was built and roofed with Bressay stone. There are several brochs, all ruined, most of them plundered for building stone by later generations.

Flooded by the Sea

The broch on the shore of Noss Sound is of special interest because it originally served Noss, not Bressay. Noss Sound is a very shallow and fairly recent channel and there's no doubt that 2,000 years ago (when the broch was in use as a defence against burglary and ethnic cleansing) Bressay and Noss were joined by a narrow strip of sand - just as St Ninian's Isle and Mainland Shetland are today. It's possible, given what we know of Shetland's rising sea level, that Bressay itself was joined to the Mainland at that time, where ships now pass through the narrow, dredged channel of Bressay Sound's north entrance.

Bressay in the evening

When the Vikings arrived 1,200 years ago they seem to have called Bressay Sound Breiðeyarsund - the sound of the wide islands. With Noss Sound (and perhaps also the north end of Bressay Sound) closed, there would have been an even more ferocious tide race off the headland of Noss (meaning 'the nose') than there is today. The wide islands would have been a serious obstacle to navigation along the east coast of Shetland.

Press Gang Hidey-holes

Bressy lit by the mooonlight

Along the east side of the island are many hidey-holes where fugitives from the Press Gang hid during the Napoleonic Wars. Bressay men were particularly at risk, living right next to the main naval base in Shetland. There are folk tales of narrow escapes, including one crofter who jumped over a cliff to avoid service with the Royal Navy, and lived to tell the tale. The Orkneyman's Cave under Bard Head has another 18th century legend of a fisherman who sought refuge inside, only to have his boat break up under him; and in the Hellier Hol cave there's an iron ring-bolt hammered into the cave wall, presumably to moor a small boat out of sight of the Navy - or possibly the Customs!

A Growing Community

In the mid-19th century Bressay supported 900 people but evictions, war losses and emigration reduced the population to about 250 by the mid 1960s. Since the introduction of the car ferry in 1975 the island has recovered and now has about 400 inhabitants, many of whom commute to Lerwick to work.

The crofts are still worked, most of them as a part time or spare time occupation but with several very productive larger units, many of them run on organic principles. Ancient traditions continue in communal herding of the hill sheep and a few families still cut peat for fuel.

There's a lively primary school, a thriving local history group, a boating club, shop, pub and a community hall where visitors are always welcome at concerts, dances, social evenings, the annual Up Helly A' fire festival in February and the Bressay Gardening Club show in August.

Bressay wildlife

There is plenty of birdlife to see in Bressay, including most of the species found in Noss. The south eastern corner of the island includes the Puffin cliffs of the Ord and has a breeding colony of several hundred Great Skua around the loch at Sand Vatn as well as breeding Dunlin, Common Sandpiper, Snipe, Curlew, Whimbrel, Golden Plover and other moorland birds. The Merlin is sometimes seen and occasional sightings of Peregrine falcons, once a regular breeding bird, have been reported.

Bressay's breeding list also includes Oystercatcher, Arctic Skua, Arctic Tern, Eider, Black Guillemot, Shag, Redshank, Raven, Red throated Diver, Ringed Plover and Lapwing.

A colony of Puffins can be seen at close quarters at Blue Geo on the east side of Aith Ness, at the north end of the island. There are small colonies of Kittiwakes and other gulls along the east coast and Fulmars are so numerous that they even nest in old quarries inland.

Spring and autumn bring Bressay its share of migrating birds. Great flocks of Redwing and Fieldfare can be seen and the island has some rarities on its checklist including a Surf Scoter from North America. In winter the lochs are used by parties of up to a dozen Whooper Swans. Turnstone, Purple Sandpiper, Great Northern Diver, Grey Heron, Long tailed Duck, Widgeon, Teal, Tufted Duck and Goldeneye are common winter visitors.

The native mammals are Otter, Grey Seal and Common Seal. Rabbits, hedgehogs, rats, mice (and sheep!) have all been introduced by humans over the centuries. There are no snakes or other reptiles but introduced frogs thrive.

Floral Roadsides

There is little spraying or mowing of the roadside verges in Bressay, with the result that they are a riot of wild flowers in June and July. Off the beaten track, the meadow flowers are at their best among the croft land in those months, while in the wetter pastures there are fine displays of Purple Orchids.

Further Information

• See the Bressay & Noss Interpretive Leaflet
• Find out about Bressay History Group's excavation of the burnt mound at Cruester - Download press release (pdf) or launch week (pdf) information.

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