Fladdabister
Shetlopedia - The Shetland Encyclopaedia
| Shetland Settlements | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Fladdabister |
 | |
| UK Grid Reference: | HU434324 |
| Distance from Lerwick by road: | 7 miles |
| Community Council: | Gulberwick, Quarff, & Cunningsburgh |
| Google Street View: | |
Fladdabister, (Old Norse : Flatibólstaðr = Flat Farm ), lies 8 miles south of Lerwick, on the east side of the South Shetland Mainland, on the Bay of Fladdabister. The photograph shows how flat it was!
The remains of old croft buildings there give a good impression of the layout of an old crofting township.
Fladdabister is the subject of Rhoda Bulter's first published poem (1970), and one of her finest, in which she desribes the passing seasons of the crofting way of life there, ending with harvest:
- Dan whin hairst is hintin idda ir,
- Da coarn head's heavy an ready ta shair
- Shun rigs o stubble, aert dow'd an bare,
- Whaar simmer blissed er.
- Boats ir draa'n up ta da head o da noost
- Whaar da dockens staand laek bolts o roost.
- Noo da aert can sleep, for da haerst is coosed
- At Fladdabister.
- Dan whin hairst is hintin idda ir,
