🏘️ Roughcaster in Mid Yell, Shetland

About Roughcasters

A roughcaster applies a textured external finish to buildings - the traditional Scottish harling that protects stone and blockwork walls from the weather while giving them a clean, uniform appearance.

Harling is one of Scotland's most common wall finishes and when it cracks, blows or starts to let in damp, getting it patched or replaced promptly prevents more expensive damage to the masonry underneath.

Ask whether they use traditional lime harling or modern cement render - on older stone buildings, lime-based finishes allow the walls to breathe and avoid the moisture problems that cement can cause.

About Mid Yell

Mid Yell is the main village on the island of Yell, the second-largest of the Shetland Islands, lying between Mainland to the south and Unst to the north.

Yell has a population of around 750 people and Mid Yell serves as the main settlement with a secondary school, a health centre, a leisure centre and a small range of shops.

The island is characterised by its vast peat moorland - Yell is one of the largest areas of blanket bog in Europe - and its coastline is rich with otters, seals and seabirds.

Yell is connected by ferry to Mainland at Toft in the south and to Unst at Gutcher in the north, making Mid Yell a natural stopping point on the journey to the most northerly islands.

About 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.