1856
Shetlopedia - The Shetland Encyclopaedia
- Work started on Bressay Lighthouse at Kirkabister Ness
- The Resolution (1856), a packet boat, of Lerwick, drove from anchor and wrecked at 'Burravoe', Yell while the crew were ashore.
- Aith Methodist Chapel was built.
February
- 1st Gas Lighting in Lerwick for the first time.
August
- 10th
Robert Hunter Bell, heir of the Lunna estate, was born.
September
- 11th or 12th
The Ardent, a brig, or Cardigan, Wales, from Limerick, Ireland to Liverpool, England with a cargo of oats, stranded in the Bay of Quendale. Declared a total wreck on the 18th after becoming deeply embedded in the Quendale Sand. All of the crew were saved.
December
- 1st
Malcolm Smith, MP for Orkney and Shetland, was born
