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Dragon Rapide at Sumburgh in the mid 1940s

75 years ago, on April 18th 1933, a DeHaviland Moth with 4 passengers on board, was the first aircraft to land on the Sumburgh Links. It was to be over 3 years before scheduled air services to Shetland started, on 2nd June 1936. And on 23rd November 1937 the first scheduled air mail started.
But since those early pioneering days Sumburgh Airport has grown to be of vital importance to Shetland.
Over the years the airport has been expanded and improved, especially in the late 1970s when crew change flights for offshore oil installations made Sumburgh the fastest growing airport in the UK, with a peak of 51,000 aircraft movements during 1978.
Although most of the offshore traffic is now handled through Scatsta Airport, Sumburgh has remained Shetland's gateway airport for scheduled flights, with connections to Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Inverness, Kirkwall, Glasgow, and London Stansted. In addition, starting in June, a twice weekly service will operate to Bergen, in Norway.
As well as passenger flights, dedicated aircraft bring newspapers and mail to the islands every day.

For more information about Sumburgh Airport and it's history, click on This Link.

• 1981 - Sullom Voe Oil Terminal inaugeration attended by Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Phillip.
• 1971 - The first oil rig is positioned in Shetland waters, off Unst.
• 1947 - Lerwick becomes "wet" again, with the first licences for the retail sale of alcohol granted since 1921.
• 1933 - RNLI Lifeboat station established at Aith.
• 1900 - The Swan was launched in Lerwick.
  
• 1868 - The German barque Lessing wrecked on Fair Isle.
  

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Explore Shetland step by step
Make your choice from all our Shetland Settlements.
Or, visit our modern and ancient "capitals" Lerwick and Scalloway.
No visit to Shetland is complete without taking a ferry to visit one of the Outer Isles.

When rambling through Shetland
Look out for the historical attractions and local museums, or discover our naturally beautiful landscapes and our Voes, Firths, and Bays.

To get a taste of what you will see
Have a browse through our "picture galleries".

Looking for some indoor leisure activities?
Then join in and do some sports in one of our fine Leisure Centres: Go for a swim, try your skills in indoor bowling – or just watch the competing folks.
Or for something more leisurely take a look around our pubs and bars

Further advice for visitors to Shetland
Can be found by visiting our Tourism Pages

Winter scene. Da Clifts o Cunningsburgh, 24th March 2008. Picture by:Jim Work

Shetland's best values: The people!
Here you can meet some of those who represent our community as well as some of the incoming folks and other native Shetlanders of the past.

Present Day Shetland
is a vibrant community based both in,

• a great variety of businesses representing traditional but still important industries like fishery to the spearheads active in the renewable energies sector and
• the active life in our communities, our schools and the modern colleges which play a major role in our social and cultural life.

Shetland Heritage
is represented by far more than our famous archaeological monuments such as Jarlshof and the Broch of Mousa.
Most importantly, it is a living heritage, living in our arts, crafts, music and festivals, as well as the continuation of traditional Shetland industries such as fishing, crofting, and knitwear.

Laughton Johnston

J. Laughton Johnston is a poet, novelist and biographer, and the author of A Naturalist's Shetland, the only comprehensive account of Shetland's natural history from its geological beginnings to the present day. He is also the author of Scotland's Nature in Trust, written in association with the National Trust for Scotland on the environmental management of their island and mountain properties. Johnston has an excellent knowledge of Shetland's wildlife, as well as its history and culture, being a half-Shetlander himself and familiar with the islands since childhood. From 1969 until he took early retirement, he worked for Scottish Natural Heritage. During that period, among other things, he was responsible for Shetland and Orkney for 6 years and the island of Rum on the West Coast of Scotland. Because of his love of the islands he has recently renovated a cottage in Sandness where he now spends half the year wildlife guiding and writing.

Laughton Johnston is the son of the author Elizabeth Balneaves.
For more information, Click Here.

Thursday, 1st May, sees the start of the 2008 Shetland Folk Festival. The annual event, which started in 1981, attracts visiting artists from all over the world.
To see full details of this years acts, including links to their websites and myspace pages, click on THIS LINK