Tradespeople in Lerwick, Shetland

Lerwick is the capital of Shetland and the most northerly town in the United Kingdom, sitting on the eastern coast of Mainland Shetland overlooking the natural harbour of Bressay Sound.

The town has a population of around 7,000 and serves as the commercial, administrative and cultural hub of the islands, with the main shops, hospital, secondary school, museum and ferry terminal all concentrated here.

The old town is built around the waterfront, with the narrow stone-flagged lanes of Commercial Street running parallel to the harbour - a street that still functions as the town’s main shopping thoroughfare and social artery.

Lerwick is home to Up Helly Aa, the spectacular fire festival held on the last Tuesday of January, in which a thousand torch-bearing guizers march through the streets and burn a replica Viking longship.

Regular ferry services connect Lerwick to Aberdeen and Kirkwall and the town is the starting point for inter-island ferries and buses to every corner of Shetland.

Shetland is an archipelago of around 100 islands - 16 of them inhabited - lying roughly 110 miles north of the Scottish mainland and 210 miles west of Norway, making it the most northerly part of the United Kingdom.

Lerwick is the capital and only town of any size, a compact and characterful harbour settlement that serves as the administrative, commercial and cultural centre of the islands. Around 7,000 of Shetland’s 23,000 residents live in and around the town.

Shetland’s economy has been shaped by the sea for centuries: fishing remains a major industry and the arrival of North Sea oil at the Sullom Voe terminal in the 1970s brought prosperity that was carefully managed through a charitable trust that continues to fund services and infrastructure across the islands.

The landscape is treeless, wind-scoured and dramatic - sea cliffs, voes (narrow inlets), tombolo beaches and open moorland define the character of the islands and nowhere in Shetland is more than three miles from the sea.

Shetland has a distinct cultural identity that draws on both Scottish and Norse heritage - the annual Up Helly Aa fire festival, the Shetland dialect and the fiddle music tradition are central to island life and the sense of community across the islands is strong and self-reliant.