As we left the ferry in Lerwick, we were welcomed in five different languages, including Norwegian. Please note that Norwegian is the second language on the sign, the German and French welcome texts are below the Icelandic text. How often does that happen? Hardly ever.I'm not sure who they used to write the Norwegian text, but they obviously didn't get it right the first time. Those of you who are fluent in Norwegian will notice that they didn't get it quite right the second time around either. I found it quite charming, though.
Shetland Museum and Archive
We started our stay in Shetland by visiting the Shetland Museum and Archive. This was a very good museum, with lots of information for the adults and lots of interactive activities for the kids.Shetland was under Norwegain rule until 1469, when it was given to Scotland as dowry in the marriage between Princess Margaret of Denmark and James III, King of Scots. The laws, dialect, place names and way of life all reflect the Scandinavian impact on the islands.
I discovered many Norwegian words, for example 'sound' for 'sund' (an inlet or deep bay of the sea), 'bairn' for 'barn' (children - this is something I've also heard in Scottish) or 'ay' for 'øy' (island), for example Whalsay or Bressay. And then there is the 'thing' or 'ting' which I will write more about later in this blog post.
Holy business
After our visit to the Shetland Museum we headed off to Scalloway to visit the Scalloway Museum. On the outskirts of Scalloway we drove past Kirk Business Centre. We were all very intrigued by this place.I assume they do holy business there? Or is this a place where they combine God and Mammon?
The truth is unfortunately less exciting, it's another example of a church that is used for new purposes. But I do love the name! It sparks your imagination.
Tourists arriving out of season
The Scalloway Museum was very new, it had been opened by Norway's Prime Minister on our Constitution Day last year. We were very disappointed when we discovered that the museum closed for the season on 30 September. As we were looking in, a man working inside the museum came out and told us that the museum was closed, but we could borrow the key to the castle instead. We happily accepted the offer and went to look at the castle. (We later learned that this was the way it is done - you borrow the key and lock yourself in. Pretty cool though.)
Scalloway Castle
Scalloway Castle was built in 1600 by Patrick Stewart, Earl of Orkney and Lord of Shetland. Yes, this was the tyrant who built Earl's Palace in Kirkwall, ref. my blog post '22 October - part 2: Kirkwall, seen through Norwegian eyes'. In order to build these great buildings, Patrick enforced his right to make use of the labour of neighbouring landowners' tenants, offering them neither food nor drink in return. Not a very sympathetic man, was he? The L-shaped tower was the main block of Scalloway Castle, although there would have been other domestic buildings and stores in the grounds. The castle stands three storeys high above a vaulted ground floor containing the kitchen and store. The main block contained a great hall at first floor level, and a series of chambers on the upper floors.
Sheriff Court for Shetland at Scalloway Castle
During the era of the castle's full use it increasingly housed the Sheriff Court for Shetland, which had formerly taken the form of lawting sessions at Tingwall. Part of Earl Patrick’s abuse of his position was that he used whatever legal system best served his own wealth and interests during his rule. This lead to an Act of Scottish privy council being introduced to prevent this parallel use of legal systems in 1611.
After 1615 the court was ruled by a Sheriff and the records from this era provide an insight into the crimes, judgements and agreements of the era. These range from land agreements to petty theft, peculiar crimes of the era and punishment for witchcraft. The range of punishments decreed to offenders was brutal and extreme, ranging from banishment to beheading and from branding to burning after drowning. It was even decreed that the new settlement of Lerwick be demolished and burnt due to its lawless iniquity in 1625!The decline of Scalloway Castle
Scalloway Museum
The Shetland Bus - an important part of Norwegian resistance during WWII
Our main reason for visiting the museum was to learn more about the Shetland Bus, a clandestine organisation formed by the Secret Intelligence Service, the Special Operations Executive and the military intelligence service of Norway’s government-in-exile.
The main purpose of the group was to transfer
agents in and out of
Norway and supply them with weapons, radios and other supplies. Coded
messages were passed in BBC broadcasts.The group would also bring out Norwegians who feared arrest by the Germans. In Scalloway there is a house called Norway House, where the refugees were given shelter when they first arrived at Shetland.
Undercover fishing boats
The unit was initially operated by a large number of small Norwegian fishing boats. Crossings were mostly made during winter under the cover of darkness. This meant that the crews and passengers had to endure very heavy North Sea-conditions, with no lights, and constant risk of discovery by German aircraft or patrol boats. There was also the possibility of being captured whilst carrying out the mission on the Norwegian coast.
However, early on it was decided that camouflage was the best defence and the boats were disguised as working fishing boats, with the crew as fishermen. The fishing boats were armed with light machine guns concealed inside oil drums placed on deck. One of these was on display at the museum and I was impressed at how skilfully it had been made.Several fishing boats were lost during the initial operations and in 1943 it was decided that faster vessels were needed. The unit was augmented by three fast and well-armed submarine chasers, after which there were no more losses.
Leif Andreas Larsen (popularly known as Shetland Larsen) was the most famous of the Shetland Bus men. In all he made 52 trips to Norway, and became the most highly-decorated Allied naval officer of the Second World War.
Tingwall - the old parliament of Shetland
On our way from Scalloway to Lerwick, we went to see Tingwall or Tingaholm, a small promontory in the Tingwall Loch (both seen in the background in the picture below).
'Thing' or 'ting' comes from the Old Norse 'þing' and means parliament. The small promontory of Tingwall was the site of Shetland’s local parliament until the late 16th century. From the 1270s onwards, Shetlanders used the Norwegian law code of King Magnus the Lawmender (Magnus Lagabøte). Shetland’s lawthing was an assembly where local people and officials tried offenders, interpreted the law, and enacted new legislation. Many other thing sites throughout Britain and Scandinavia occur wherever Norsemen settled and brought their laws, and they can still be identified by their 'thing', 'ting', 'ding' or 'fing' place names.
Early documents dating from1307
onwards, record Lawting meetings taking place at Tingwall. After the
islands became part of Scotland in 1469, the law gradually began to
change. In the 1570s, the thing moved to Scalloway, eventually meeting in
Earl Patrick's new castle.As an added bonus, the landscape around Tingwall was extremely beautiful and that alone made it worth the drive. We were also fascinated by the number of sheep on one of the fields close to Tingwall - it was like there was a party there and everyone was invited.
Royal accommodation at King Harald Apartments
After looking at TripAdvisor and Shetland Visitor, we found King Harald Apartments.With a name like that we just had to go there.The apartment had tea, coffee and biscuits, and even a pint of milk in the fridge - it truly felt like a home away from home. I've come to really appreciate this part of life in Scotland. It seems this tradition is starting to rub off on our boys as well, now they too want tea with sugar and milk.
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