The Knab

Shetlopedia - The Shetland Encyclopaedia

View to The Knab from Bressay Sound. The Cemetery to the left, South Ness House in centre, and the Anderson High School to the right.

Postcard from 1932,showing the Knab in centre

Click for OS MAP.

The Knab, (HU480403), is the south pointing ness between Bressay Sound and Brei Wick. Its tip is called the Horse of the Knab.

Legend has it that in 1778 John Paul Jones, the American privateer, approached Bressay Sound with the intention of sacking Lerwick, but that he speedily withdrew when he mistook a group of women gathered on the Knab and clad in red wadmal petticoats for a garrison of King George's red-coats.

Today, Lerwick Cemetery is located at the Knab. The remains of a WW II torpedo tube platform, a part of the Lerwick Harbour defence, can be found on the side facing Bressay.