Tradespeople in Sumburgh, Shetland

Sumburgh sits at the southern tip of Mainland Shetland, where the island narrows to a dramatic headland separating the North Sea from the Atlantic.

Sumburgh Airport, the main airport serving Shetland, occupies a striking position on the flat ground near the headland and has been an important aviation base since the Second World War, with helicopter services to the North Sea oil platforms operating alongside scheduled flights.

Jarlshof, one of the most remarkable archaeological sites in Europe, lies just south of the airport - a complex of Norse, Pictish, Bronze Age and Iron Age buildings uncovered by a storm in the late 19th century and spanning over 4,000 years of human settlement.

Sumburgh Head lighthouse, designed by Robert Stevenson, crowns the headland and is now a visitor centre and nature reserve, with superb views and one of the best places in Britain to see puffins at close range.

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.