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Penannular brooch

50 years ago, on the 4th of July 1958,The St Ninian's Isle Treasure was discovered under a cross-marked slab in the floor of the early St. Ninian's church by a local schoolboy, Douglas Coutts.
Coutts was helping visiting archaeologists led by Professor A. C. O'Dell of Aberdeen University at a dig on the isle. The beautiful silver bowls and and trinkets are believed to date from approx. 800 AD.

Replica Treasure on display at Shetland Museum

The treasure is normally housed in the Scottish Museum in Edinburgh, with replicas on display in the Shetland Museum. But, to mark the 50th anniversary of their discovery, a special exhibition of the original artifacts opens at the Shetland Museum on Saturday 5th July.

For more information on the St Ninian's Isle Treasure, click Here.

2006 - 7th - Shetlopedia Launched.
2005 - 9th to 15th - Shetland hosts the NatWest Island Games.
1979 - 31st - Dan Air crash at Sumburgh Airport.
1960 - 1st - St Clair (III) arrives on maiden voyage from Aberdeen.
1930 - 7th - Lerwick Lifeboat station established.
1928 - 17th - First visit to Lerwick Harbour by a cruise ship.
1914 - 28th - Outbreak of World War One.
1909 - 9th - Telephone link between Lerwick and Scalloway established.
1904 - 23rd - 33 vessels of the German High Seas Fleet anchored in Lerwick Harbour for a 4 day visit.
1881 - 21st - 10 boats and 58 men lost in Gloup fishing disaster.
1832 - 16th - 17 boats and 105 men lost in severe storm.
For more information on years past, check out our Timeline.

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Explore Shetland step by step
Make your choice from all our Shetland Settlements.
Or, visit our modern and ancient "capitals" Lerwick and Scalloway.
No visit to Shetland is complete without taking a ferry to visit one of the Outer Isles.

When rambling through Shetland
Look out for the historical attractions and local museums, or discover our naturally beautiful landscapes and our Voes, Firths, and Bays.

To get a taste of what you will see
Have a browse through our "picture galleries".

Looking for some indoor leisure activities?
Then join in and do some sports in one of our fine Leisure Centres: Go for a swim, try your skills in indoor bowling – or just watch the competing folks.
Or for something more leisurely take a look around our pubs and bars

Further advice for visitors to Shetland
Can be found by visiting our Tourism Pages

Lone sheep Picture by: Jonny McIntosh

Shetland's best values: The people!
Here you can meet some of those who represent our community as well as some of the incoming folks and other native Shetlanders of the past.

Present Day Shetland
is a vibrant community based both in,

• a great variety of businesses representing traditional but still important industries like fishery to the spearheads active in the renewable energies sector and
• the active life in our communities, our schools and the modern colleges which play a major role in our social and cultural life.

Shetland Heritage
is represented by far more than our famous archaeological monuments such as Jarlshof and the Broch of Mousa.
Most importantly, it is a living heritage, living in our arts, crafts, music and festivals, as well as the continuation of traditional Shetland industries such as fishing, crofting, and knitwear.

The 'Croft Cosy' project.

Roxane Permar is a Burra-based visual artist and a member of the Veer North collective. Roxane Permar has worked in the field of public art and socially engaged practice since 1990. She creates works in a variety of media that respond to the history, community and culture of a location. Processes for networking, participation, consultation and inter-disciplinary collaboration underpin her work.

She has been involved with Shetland since 1985 when she began to visit regularly and moved to Burra Isle permanently in 2000. In 1990 she worked with Susan Timmins to create the public project, The Nuclear Roadshow, and from 1992-95 she worked with Wilma Johnson on another project, The Croft Cosy Project. Since 2001 she has worked with young people through a variety of special projects, largely focussing on the use of digital media.

For more information on Roxane Permar, click Here.

Eddie Barclay, from Sandwick, has been one of Shetland's most popular entertainers since the release of his first album in 1983.
Eddie's father - Wille Barclay, and Uncle - John Barclay, were both prolific songwriters. And by combining their songs with those of Eddie Smith, another Sandwick man, Barclay's first album, "Hame Aboot" quickly became on of the most popular albums in Shetland.
The humour in the songs captured the natural ability of Shetlanders to have a good laugh at almost anything, and during the 1980s a night of songs by Eddie Barclay was a certain success in venues all over the isles.
For more information, click Here.