Fair Isle (Shetland) 2009

Fair Isle For photographs scroll down to bottom
June 2009

with Cate Macfarlane and Paul Heppleston

After meeting up safely at Aberdeen rail station we went by taxi for a cup of tea and cakes to a nearby Episcopal Church where we chatted and worshipped together - and Paul with Cate revealed the inner secrets of the time we were to spend together. This kind of preliminary gathering at the beginning of a (in our case a literal and long) journey is really very important and helpful. It set the scene for our subsequent togetherness, which began by boarding the Northlink ship Hjaltland (photo below) which took us overnight to Lerwick.

This is where the risks if living in remote places came to the fore : it became clear that the Fair Isle mailboat (The Good Shepherd), due to leave Grutness at the south end of Shetland at 11am, was cancelled that day due to high winds. It was a lovely sunny day with no rain in sight, but sea conditions were clearly not conducive to a good sail - or indeed to a sailing at all. In the end we all decide that Paul's suggestion of flying in to the isle was the best way; after all, there was no guarantee that the boat would sail the next day and we had travelled far, some from Somerset, for these 10 days on Britain's remotest inhabited island. Any delay in getting there was not something we wanted, so we all flew in by those wonderful Brittain-Norman 8-seat Islander planes (we needed two!) and we ended up at the Puffinn (our main base), courtesy of various islanders' cars, in time for tea.

Because of the size of the group it had been arranged that we'd split for our sleeping : some stayed in the Puffinn, two couples went to the South Lighthouse B&B, and three other intrepid folks stayed in Springfield, a lovely and very old traditional croft house 15 mins walk from the Puffinn. This worked very well, all coming together for porridge at 8.30 every morning. We ate and worshipped and generally spent our 'together-time' at the Puffinn.

And what did we do on the isle for nine whole days? After all it's only 3+ miles long and 1 mile across at broadest......so here is a sample of what this most beautiful spot can offer :

~ the friendliest community some of us had ever experienced. Islanders couldn't do too much for us.

~ creating our own worship times in the fire-warmed Puffinn living area or out on the cliff-top
~ flowers, birds, seascapes, dramatic cliff scenery
~ views to Shetland and Foula, both 25+ miles away
~ being 'resident' and feeling that we were 'living' there, albeit for a short time
~ establishing a rhythm of life
~ Puffins, Arctic Skuas, Bonxies, Fulmars, Guillemots, Razorbills
~ catching a warbler in a trap
~ orchids, butterwort, sundew (just a few of the masses of flowers around this early June)
~ leaning against a stone dyke for lunch
~ walking to the top of the isle (Ward Hill)
~ worshipping with the islanders in church and chapel
~ visiting islanders' homes and receiving 'a peerie bit tae eat' and island welcomes
~ standing and staring and nature's beauty all around, God shouting aloud "I am here!"
~ the wind
~ the constant sound of sea (and the Puffinn was only yards from the shore)
~ chatter and banter in the island shop

But perhaps most poignant for us all, having really felt that this place was 'home' for a while, was to gaze from our Aberdeen-bound ferry after leaving Lerwick...and see in the west, framing the setting sun and the orange sky, 'our' island; seeing features that we felt we knew so well, cliffs where we had sat and rested, lighthouses which marked our journeying ---- and picking out individual croft houses in which we knew the chairs where Stewart sat, Jimmy sat, Anne sat'; where we had known the pattern of their day and their welcome and warmth.