Northern lights and drystone walling in Shetland; festive 2024
Northern Lights on New Year’s Day in Shetland
Happy New Year, and thank you for coming back here to read this first blog of 2025. Who can believe it’s 2025? We’re a quarter of the way through this century. Crazy.
We had a fine festive period, very quiet, yet slowly productive in the nicest possible way. The betwixmas days brought a period of settled and still weather – unlike last year’s relentless 80mph winds that were driven in on violent easterly weather systems. The (relatively) settled weather in the final week of December saw us out and working on our drystone walls, which we’re building in the garden.
People ask me a lot about the walling that we’re doing. Basically, we’re traditionally building stone walls without any cement or mortar, carefully fitting and locking the stone together to form – we hope – an aesthetically pleasing wall in the garden. The stone came from Bressay, the island that shelters Lerwick’s harbour to the east, and is a really lovely sandstone to work with.
Bressay is made up of a sedimentary sandstone, which formed around 340 million years ago. This sandstone, laid down in layers, makes excellent building stone, and many of the rocks we’re using already have formed faces, so they require minimal work with the hammer and chisel to make them fit the wall. Quite a few of the stones also contain fossils of fish and ferns – it’s incredible to think that these have been locked in stone for hundreds of millions of years!
Throughout Shetland, drystone walls dominate the landscape – some remains dating back to Neolithic times, so this is an ancient art form. I’ve really enjoyed learning the slow and simple process of stone building; it feels very mindful and has been an excellent way to shut off the mind after a hectic year.
Last winter, I struggled with cabin fever, so it was joyous to get outside and enjoy a few hours of fresh air during the short days. Throughout December, we get just shy of six hours of light each day, and even that is a kinda half-light of sorts.
On Boxing Day, we enjoyed a walk from the Sands of Sound beach in Lerwick, seeing seals and an otter on our travels whilst blowing away the Christmas cobwebs.
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By New Year, the weather had turned, and the still days gave way to wind, and the mild days gave way to a bitter north wind that stung the cheeks. On New Year’s Eve, we cancelled our evening plans and took a bottle of champagne into the hot tub to take in the bells. We listened as all the boats in the harbour sounded their horns to mark the arrival of the new year.
On New Year’s Day, I always try to do a little of all the things I want to do in the new year: I read, wrote a little, took a long bath, had a walk, and visited family for a traditional New Year’s dinner of Reestit Mutton Tattie Soup and bannocks, followed by roast lamb and all the trimmings.
In the evening, as darkness crept in again, the mirrie dancers – what we call the northern lights – gave us the best show I’ve ever seen. No lie. (the photos above were all taken on my iPhone on New Year’s Day).
Shetland is the best place in the UK to spot the aurora borealis. The northern lights are a phenomena that occur in polar regions and are one of the most spectacular displays in the night sky. Caused by activity on the sun’s surface, solar storms release vast clouds of electrically charged particles that become trapped in the Earth’s magnetic fields at the poles: what we are seeing are atoms and molecules in the atmosphere colliding with particles from the sun. The northern lights have inspired – and scared – people for thousands of years, and folklore tells us tales of bad omens, increased fertility and change that are brought with this night-time phenomenon.
Although sightings of the lights can never be guaranteed, the best time to see them in Shetland is between mid-September and mid-March. (As a note of caution, however, don’t book a visit to see them as you may be disappointed – cloud cover hampers many viewings throughout the winter!)
You can keep up to date with aurora forecasts online and via the Shetland Aurora Hunter Facebook page.
On this New Year’s Day, they danced and swam around the sky, casting green and pink curtains of light all around and above us, visible and vivid to the naked eye – a truly incredible way to conclude what has been a very peaceful Christmas and New Year.
Now it’s time to dive back in and see what 2025 will bring. Yesterday, I went to Yell and Eshaness to film my latest Patreon video, which will be coming soon (in it, we tackle inter-island ferries, which is something I’m asked about in every travel consultation!).
I am now taking bookings for travel consultations to Shetland, so if you are planning a visit this year, you can book a Zoom call with me to discuss your plans, and I’ll help you build an itinerary.
Finally, in some exciting news, I was asked to submit a book proposal and sample chapter to a well-known Scottish agent, and I sent these off this morning – keep your fingers crossed for me!
Wishing you all a happy, healthy and prosperous 2025,
With love,
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