VisitShetland

West Mainland

Welcome to the West Mainland

The West Mainland offers lovely beaches, hill and coastal walks, excellent bird-watching, seal-watching and otter-spotting, good sea- and freshwater angling and some fascinating historical and archaeological sites. The coastline varies from dramatic cliffs to long, sea lochs, or 'voes', reaching far into a landscape of heathery hills and green crofts.

This is a largely unspoilt corner of Shetland, only indirectly affected by oil developments. This is still a crofting community but also a centre of the seafood industry, with many fish and shellfish farms, inshore fishing boats and, at Skeld, a processing plant.

Common Cottongrass

The voes are ideal for yachting and canoeing. Modern marinas at Walls, Aith and Skeld reserve berths for visiting sailors and the annual regattas are major social events. Like the Skeld Sheepdog Trials and the Walls Agricultural Show, these usually include a concert and dance where visitors are welcome. In summertime several village halls offer Sunday teas - terrific value with home-baking and a chance to meet local people.

Most villages have a shop, post office and fuel pumps. The West Mainland even has its own swimming pool, bakery, spinning mill and vet.

Accommodation ranges from luxury guest house to bed and breakfast and a camping barn, or bod. There are also many idyllic spots to pitch your tent - but please ask permission from local landholders and remember to follow the Countryside Code.

The ferry to Foula leaves from Walls Pier and the Papa Stour ferry's base is at West Burrafirth. A network of well-maintained side roads leads the visitor to dozens of quiet corners and some of the most beautiful and peaceful landscapes anywhere.

The area is home to some of Shetland's keenest gardeners - don't miss the amazing kitchen garden at Burrastow House near the village of Walls and the beautiful gardens created at The Lea in Tresta, from what just a bare croft in the hill 25 years ago. Not far away is the Burn of Tactigil, where a major geological fault reveals Shetland's only deposit of china clay. The fault runs south to emerge at the secluded pebble beach of Sandsound, a favourite picnic place.

The Bixter Firth is one of Shetland's most sheltered sea lochs and a favourite with trout fishers and birdwatchers.

The village of Bixter has a tourist information centre at the shop and a children's playpark. Here the road branches north to Aith - a large township with a tweed mill, secondary school and marina. One of Britain's most modern RNLI lifeboats, a 17-metre, long-range, 'Severn' class boat, is stationed at the Aith Pier, next to the shop. The local hall doubles as a café and camping barn.

Just north of Aith is the hamlet of East Burrafirth, where a path leads up the Burn of Lunklet to the waterfall and on to some exhilarating hill-walking. A viewpoint on the road at Gonfirth shows a grand sweep of lochs, hills, islands and voes.

The uninhabited island of Vementry has ruins of ancient homesteads and burial cairns and derelict First World War gun emplacements. An interesting walk leads from Vementry House over the hills to the sheltered sounds around Clousta & Noonsbrough - including Da Vadills, a special marine conservation area.

A favourite coastal walk is along the coast from Walls to Sandness, taking in the grand panorama of Foula and the Atlantic from Watsness, the superb cliffs and sea stacks of Deepdale, over Sandness Hill and down past the ancient water mills at Huxter to the sandy beach at Melby. Some of the best beaches among dozens in the West Mainland are Sand, Reawick, Westerwick and Culswick.

Archaeological attractions in the area: numerous chambered cairns; Iron Age field systems at the Scord of Brouster; and the Staneydale 'temple' and settlement sites; and dozens of brochs, including the Broch of Culswick

At Burrastow a modern version of a broch serves as the boathouse for the privately-owned island of Vaila, with its magnificently restored Edwardian mansion, Vaila Hall.

More information:
View our interpretive leaflet on the West Mainland

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