Tradespeople in Scalloway, Shetland

Scalloway is Shetland’s former capital, a small harbour town of around 1,200 people on the west coast of Mainland, roughly six miles from Lerwick across the narrow waist of the island.

Scalloway Castle, built in 1600 by the notorious Earl Patrick Stewart, dominates the waterfront and is a prominent reminder of the town’s former status as the seat of power in Shetland.

During the Second World War, Scalloway was the base for the Shetland Bus - the clandestine naval operation that ran agents and supplies between Shetland and Nazi-occupied Norway - and a museum in the town tells that remarkable story.

The harbour remains active, with fishing boats and the North Atlantic Fisheries College, which trains the next generation of Shetland’s maritime workforce.

Scalloway has a primary school, a small range of shops and services and a strong community identity distinct from neighbouring Lerwick.

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.