Tag Archives: The Hoswick Whale Case 1888

Hoswick Visitor Centre

After an action packed Up Helly Aa day at Busta House on Shetland we are continuing today by journeying south. We have three targets in mind: St Ninan’s Isle, Hoswick Visitor Centre and Sumburgh Head.

Tombola

It was a glorious day and our first stop was St Ninan’s Isle. Beaches don’t come much more beautiful than this! Pat looking towards St Nina's IsleIt is referred to as a tombola beach. We’ve read the explanation as to how these things get formed but we still don’t understand. Anyway this one is 500m long and allowed us to make our way over to the St Ninian’s chapel on the island itself. Remember our post from Hidden Treasure at Johnshaven, well they really did find treasure here. Fabulous Pictish brooches and other artefacts.

St Ninian's chapel
small stone 12th century church built on the foundations of an earlier Iron Age structure 800 BC to AD 400 … burial ground used for almost 2,000 years.

It turns out that St Ninan never visited this place … what? Okay, okay everyone knows that he actually lived on a roundabout in Stirling. This is a magical place and we had it all to ourselves, however, it was sconeless. It was getting to that time! We had to move on!

Knitwear

Hoswick was already on our radar because an acquaintance has a knitwear place there called Neilanell knitwear.

Nielanell'shop and overall's hanging out drying for Trump
Niela runs a thriving knitwear business from here. And one size overall’s hanging out drying ready for Trump …  or Putin

Unfortunately Neila was laid low at home but a very helpful young girl showed us all her fabulous hand knitted stuff. Get well soon Neila!

The Hoswick Visitor Centre was just a few feet away around the corner. As soon as we walked in we were welcomed by Betty Smith who wanted to show us everything in the shop part of the Centre. Internal view of Hoswick Visitor CentreThere were quite a few possibilities but we thought we should ponder over a scone first before making any impulse purchases. There was cheese and plain on offer. Cheese was the winner. Sophie makes them fresh every day. We just had it with butter and it was definitely the best cheese scone we have had in ages. A scone at Hoswick Visitor Centre

Having pondered on what to purchase I decide I would like a bow tie (it’s a long story). While Pat and Betty went off to select one I read up on the Hoswick Whale Case of 1888.

Hoswick bay
Hoswich bay as it is today and when it was covered in pilot whales in 1888

In 1888 the men and boys from this community drove ashore 300 whales, which were sold for £454. The people were facing starvation due to a failed fishing season and early snow resulting in disaster for the harvest. Typically, perhaps, the local landowner, John Bruce the Younger decided to claim what he regarded as his rightful share in spite of having done precisely nothing to help. A large court case followed which eventually found in favour of the laird. He got a third of everything … t’was ever thus!

Kindness

Pat and Betty had selected a lovely tweed bow tie but in the process of going round with Betty, Pat had let slip that today was a special day for me. Earlier, I had been presented me with a bottle of Muckle Flugga whisky. Highly recommended as a way to start the day.

Pat feeding Shetland ponies pan drops
Pat discovering that Shetland ponies love pan drops


Turned out Betty was going to be the same age as me in a couple of months … a mere sapling! Once again we were delighted by how friendly and welcoming everyone was. As we returned to our car Betty came after us waving frantically. She gave us a box containing a cheese and a plain scone … how nice is that? Lovely people!

Our last destination was Sumburgh Head. You can’t go any further south than this without ending up in the sea. It was quite something. With great difficulty I managed to get the car door open because of the wind. It was fierce. Very difficult to just stand still so watching the seabirds on the cliff edge was a definite no no!

Sumburgh airport
At Sumburgh airport the main road crosses the main runway. They are very relaxed on Shetland. Pat got a bit excited, however, when I stopped to take a picture.

At night we went to No88 in Lerwick for a birthday dinner. What a  night with more of the local people making us feel sooo welcome. There was much Muckle Flugga testing! It’s excellent but more testing is needed 😀

ZE2 9HL          tel: 01950 431406         Hoswick Visitor

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