Shetland Islands

Shetland is a hundred islands of ancient, hard rock, treeless and cut about by voes - long narrow sea inlets that mean nowhere is more than five kilometres from salt water. The latitude does the rest: in June there is no full darkness, a period locally called the simmer dim, and in winter the daylight is barely six hours. Sumburgh Head in the south is one of the easiest places in Britain to see puffins at close range from May to early August, with a lighthouse and cliffs full of guillemots below. Hermaness on Unst looks out to Muckle Flugga, the northernmost point of the country. St Ninian's Isle is joined to the mainland by a sand tombolo you can walk across, and the Norse inheritance runs through place names and dialect.

What you actually see

• Sumburgh Head - puffins and seabird ledges below a working lighthouse.
• St Ninian's Isle tombolo - a double sand bar linking island to mainland.
• Hermaness on Unst - cliffs and gannets above Muckle Flugga.
• The simmer dim - midsummer nights that never go fully dark.

When to go

May to early August for seabirds, since puffins leave the cliffs by mid-August. June gives near-continuous daylight and the mildest conditions of the year. Late January brings the Up Helly Aa fire festivals, which sell out accommodation months in advance. The overnight Aberdeen ferry takes around twelve hours and books up through the summer.

Honest expectations

It is a long, expensive journey to reach and the weather is worse than anywhere else in Britain - wind, horizontal rain and sea fog that shuts Sumburgh airport for days. Accommodation is limited and prices reflect that. There are no trees and little shelter. Inter-island ferries and buses run to sparse timetables that dictate your day.

Nearby

Orkney lies south on the same ferry route, and the Faroe Islands are nearer than London.