Author Description

For more than thirty years I have travelled to Shetland at least once a year in order to study the geology of the islands. I soon became interested in the experiences of the geologists who had worked in Shetland before me. From their accounts of Shetland in earlier times I became interested in the experiences of other early travellers. This book is a collection of extracts from the writings of travellers with some information about them and why they went to Shetland. It is mostly confined to the period before 1840. After 1840 accounts were generally written by tourists and are not as interesting. The passages quoted have been chosen mainly as records of personal experiences. I have avoided repeating what the travellers said they were told by the local people or what they had learned about Shetland from books. The traveller's first hand account of things strange to him or her gives a picture of life at that time which is different to that given by accounts written by native Shetlanders. The traveller may not always have understood what he was seeing and he certainly did not see everything, but on the other hand the Shetlander was often blind to much that was going on around him because he was too familiar with it. One aspect to which I have paid particular attention is the sea passage to Shetland. This is something which can hardly fail to interest and visitor to Shetland travelling by sea. In this last thirty years the increase in the size of the ships, the introduction of stabilizers, and the improvement of the second class accommodations have transformed the experience of travelling Shetland by sea. When I remember how uncomfortable I found travelling second class in the St. Clair only thirty years ago, I wonder whether I could even have survived a passage to Shetland 200 years ago. - Derek Flinn, Liverpool, 1985