It’s another day on Shetland and this time we are heading north west to a large peninsular area called Northmavine. There’s not a lot of cafes and restaurants up there and we had been told that the Braewick cafe still hadn’t opened for the summer. We would go anyway. In spite of what you might think we don’t have one track scone minds.
The spoils of oil
One thing you do notice when you arrive in Shetland is the roads. They are fantastic! Even single track roads going to settlements of five or six houses are as smooth as the proverbial baby’s bum. Don’t think we have ever come across a single pothole. When the oil boom started in the 1960s and 70s, Shetlanders were smart enough to know they could extract money from the oil companies for the use of their islands. The huge Sullom Voe Oil Terminal became operational around 1980 and a consortium of companies had to pay into the Shetland Oil Fund. It was used to benefit the community in all sorts of ways, the roads are just one example.
Directly across the water from here lies Norway and if you ask any Norwegian where their oil riches have gone, they would know exactly. They have the biggest Wealth Fund in the world in which everyone shares. If you were to ask the same question in the UK you would just get a blank stare.
Spoils of oil spoiled
It has all been frittered away on vanity projects in the south of England and to further line the pockets of the wealthy. The M25, the Channel Tunnel, Crossrail and now the greatest waste of money ever, the £130billion HS2 rail link … we could go on. None of it benefits Scotland and no one in Scotland would be able to point to anything apart from jobs that have resulted from oil. Margaret Thatcher used North Sea oil funds to fight the unions and destroy all of Scotland’s manufacturing industries … not a happy story. Anyway, well done Shetland for getting some tangible benefits.
Humour
Let’s head out to the wild Atlantic coast. To do that a number of people have said that the best place is Eschaness on the western extremity of Northmavine.
When we arrived in the biggest town, Hillswick, we wondered if there were any public toilets and were relieved to see this sign. Imagine our surprise when we discovered that they were ‘outside’ toilets, about eight of them. Shetland humour!
There’s not much in Hillswick except the St Magnus Bay Hotel. It’s odd when you arrive at places like this and think it’s deserted. You go in and it’s absolutely mobbed. Everyone was having lunch. All fully booked unfortunately, so they could only offer us coffee.
The chap who owned the hotel regaled me with the trials and tribulations of running a place like this. Fuel prices are going through the roof and staff are hard to come by. He’s been contemplating a windmill to power the hotel. Capital expenditure is prohibitive and the strength of the winds in Hillswick mean that they would need constant and expensive maintenance. In such an out of the way place as this, we can hardly believe that it can be run successfully at all yet he has been doing it for many years. Hats off to him!
The drinking horse
Onwards we go with Eshaness in our sights this time. On our way we see the massive rock formation, Dore Holm.
The Braewick cafe is situated at Eshaness and guess what, it was open … yeah! It must be summer! It has a rather austere exterior and once again there didn’t seem to be anyone around. But that’s because, like the St Magnus, they were all inside
After some delicious lentil soup we set about the scone which we were sharing. 
It was a fruit scone of some sort but not in the usual way. There was fruit but we couldn’t quite tell what it was. The cream was scooshie and before long it was just water. The consistency was on the heavy side. Not the best scone we have ever had but probably not the worst. Heyho, it was nice just to be here and looking out at the view.
Far too late
The coastline here is dramatic and little wonder … it is exposed to the full force of the Atlantic. Nothing between here and North America! Apparently about 350 million years ago Shetland lay near the equator and had a tropical climate. We’re sorry we missed that! The cliffs we see today formed the side of what once was the Eshaness volcano. How do they know this? Well, apparently it’s all in the plain to see (to a geologist) lava layers laid down by the volcano after successive eruptions.
The Eshaness lighthouse was built in 1929, the last manned lighthouse built by the Stevenson family. It is built of concrete which all had to be brought in by pony and cart.
Back to Lerwick after another great day and quiet night in. Tomorrow is another day.
ZE2 9RS tel: 01806 503345 Braewick Cafe
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