26 October: A quiet day in Lerwick

After breakfast we walked to the Clickminin Broch, which was a 15 minute walk from our apartment.

Clickminin Broch

A small farmhouse was built on a grassy islet in Clickminin Loch around 1000 BC, the visible remains of the farmhouse lie to the north west of the Clickminin broch. The islet was walled to enclose the cattle and sheep, but around 200 BC a much stronger wall was built around the islet. The new wall was built for defense, more than to keep the livestock in.



Around 100 BC, a 'blockhouse' was built immediately inside the only gate through the wall. This provided additional defense at the weakest point of the islet. Not long after the work on the broch was started. It was originally up to 12-15m high and came with the usual rooms, enclosures and stairs within its thick, dry stone walls. It would also have had internal wooden structures providing shelter and accommodation for a significant number of people. Some time later it was reduced in height and converted for use as the residence of a single family. At the same time the original bronze age farmstead was reoccupied.

It is thought that it was during this period that one of Clickimin's oddest features was added: a slab of stone with two footprints carved into it on the causeway leading to the broch.

From around 500 AD, occupation became less organised and the houses in use were poorly built and partly dug into the ruins of the earlier structures. By the time the Norse arrived in the 800s, Clickimin had been abandoned and forgotten.

Fort Charlotte

The next item on our itinerary was Fort Charlotte which, according to the tourist guide, offers a good overview of Lerwick.

After lunch we strolled up King Harald Street, headed up King Erik Street and walked past St Olaf Street on our way to Fort Charlotte. I really felt at home with all these great Norwegian forefathers around me.

In King Erik Street there was a large play ground and the children were keen to have a go. We had been doing so much sight-seeing by now, so we left the children to play while we went to take a look at Fort Charlotte.

The view from Fort Charlotte was not as good as expected, but the area around it made it worth the walk there. The area was littered with impressive stone buildings, including an old school with separate entrances for girls and boy, the library and an abandoned, old church.

My favourite building was the town hall with its magnificent lampposts.

A walk around Lerwick

While my husband and boys went to Clickminin Pool, I went for a stroll around Lerwick. As I walked around town I discovered that it was smaller than it seemed when we were driving, trying to find our way around the place. Most of the shops are (fittingly enough)  in Commercial Street and there are some very charming and extremely narrow Closes connecting the Commercial Street with the Esplenade and with the streets above.

A rough trip home

Our fantastic holiday had come to an end and it was time to go home. We boarded the ferry an hour before departure and got ourselves installed in our cabin. The weather forecast was pretty severe, with winds up to gale force 8. I asked the people in charge what the scale was and they confirmed that this was 8 out of 10, force 9 and 10 being storm.

With this information in mind, we all took our sea-sickness tablets and crossed our fingers. The boys and I watched a video in our cabin while my husband watched a couple of movies in the boat's cinema. We all slept very well that night and though we felt some rocking, none of us got seasick.