Shetland Islands: See
Shetland Museum and Archives in Lerwick is a good start, with excellent displays on the geology, natural environment, and long history of these islands.
Up Helly Aa Exhibition in Lerwick. Each February the "guizers" start building a Viking longship, and by June the work in progress is on display, along with displays about the festival. Several places in Shetland have Up Helly Aa events, but by far the biggest and most spectacular is in Lerwick, with a grand costumed torchlight procession culminating in burning the longship. It's nowadays held on the last Tuesday in January.
Prehistoric sites: the standout is Jarlshof in Sumburgh, inhabited from 2500 BC into early modern times. Other notable examples are Old Scatness (also near Sumburgh), Mousa Broch an Iron Age tower on Mousa, reached by boat from Sandwick (Mainland), Stanydale Temple a few miles east of Walls, and Clickimin Broch at the south edge of Lerwick.
Historic sites include the Crofthouse Museum and Quendale Watermill near Sumburgh. The castles are variously smashed up, derelict or beyond ruin, so you visit them for the picturesque view: the best is in Scalloway.
Wildlife: always keep your eyes open for this, and also watch out for sheep and Shetland ponies which may roam free on the little island roads.
- Draatsi are otters, who prefer spots where a freshwater stream runs out to sea. They're best spotted early morning or late evening at low tide, especially on Yell.
- Sea birds are prolific, look for puffins, gannets, guillemots, kittiwakes, fulmars, shags, great and arctic skuas, storm petrels, oystercatchers, eider ducks, cormorants and razorbills. Inland are curlews, whimbrels, golden and ringed plovers, lapwings and redshanks, and Fetlar has the rare red-legged phalarope.
- Marine life includes Grey and Common Seals (always sniffing around the fish processing plants in Lerwick), whales especially Minke, and other cetaceans such as porpoises, dolphins and orcas. …