Very Viking Shetlands

THE SHETLAND ISLANDS lie north-east of the Orkneys, the subject of an earlier post of mine.

The Shetlands are normally placed in an inset in maps of Scotland and Great Britain, because they are so far out to sea in the direction of Norway. Indeed, the Shetlands are closer to Norway than they are to the Scottish mainland. This map shows the true relation.

Here’s a closer view of the archipelago, which used to be part of Norway in fact and still has lots of Scandinavian-sounding place-names like Lund, Framgord, Hamnavoe and Jarlshof.

The Shetlands, with sites I visited. Background map data ©2018 Google.

Geologically, the Shetlands are quite different to the Orkneys,where tranquilly laid-down sandstone is now eroding into the sea. The Shetlands are the product of more dramatic forces, to do with oceans opening and closing and opening again over hundreds of millions of years as the continents drift.

Before the Atlantic Ocean existed, there was a similar ocean called the Iapetus Ocean, which closed up for a time and then re-opened as the Atlantic. In the middle of the…