Shetland - Day 6 - October 11

And before you know it, two weeks have gone by... Time for another Shetland update! I've also got lots of knitting news from the home front, but that will have to wait until after I finish this Shetland trip... ;) In the meantime, I've also written a few pieces on this trip (in Dutch), which will be available to read soon. More about that when I know more!

But without further ado: the trip to Unst. This was definitely the trip that we looked forward to (and dreaded) the most. Three hours in the car, two ferries... We were crossing our fingers, hoping everything would work out.
We set out with glorious weather, me driving, Monique with her Krell pill in hand to combat the motion sickness. The journey up went like a dream. Again, we stopped here and there to check out the beautiful scenery. We arrived at the first ferry on time (we had booked this one in advance), and after a short wait, we could drive on. Right next to the fuel truck!

Monique thoroughly enjoyed herself during the crossings!

And after crossing Yell, the next ferry!

This one was tiny! Look, and we were the only car!!!

After arriving on Unst, we first drove around as we had plenty of time until our appointment in the Heritage Centre. We found the old Castle of Muness, which was open for viewing. No key required indeed ;)

The cool thing was that there were massive torches available for use, so you could go underground and discover more hidden treasures. Well, someone stole all the wine from the cellar, because it was all empty... Despite it being a small castle for modern standards, I can imagine how the Bruces were quite comfortable here in the 16th century.

Then we drove on to the Heritage Centre. We passed it once, as we were looking too hard, but once we found it, we loved it!

There was lots of lace on display.

When we got there, we were immediately drawn to a beautiful lace shawl. The grand-daughter of the knitter was there to explain more about the patterns. So intricate! We were allowed to photograph this shawl, a few others were just too delicate to photograph.

On display were several beautiful shawls, and in the cabinets below, we found even more treasures. Tops, socks, shawls... We went from one astonishment to the next. Monique saw this shawl (above) and immediately started charting. A shawl with these patterns will probably come out shortly! I'll not elaborate about the dancing men with 'third legs' I saw in the design ;)

When Hazel, one of the guild knitters we chatted to over coffee, found out about Monique and her lace knitting, and her quest for the Williamson stole, she immediately took us back to the lace area, and opened up even more cupboards. One after the other, rolls were unfolded, with beautiful old shawls, but alas... not the stole we were looking for. As they are only on display for a maximum of two years at a time, and then either return to storage or the owner, it was impossible to say where it was. 

While Monique did some more charting, I had a look around the rest of the museum. This mock-up of an old croft house was quite amazing. And then to imagine this was a quite a luxurious set-up. Many people had almost no furniture at all, apart from a few chairs, a cupboard and a bed. 

After our visit to the Heritage Centre, we needed to clear our heads a bit. And where better to do that than at Hermaness? We walked for miles...

Unfortunately, the first sheep we encountered, was positively deceased... It looked like the birds flying above and other predators had a good meal out of him... (or her)

But then a flock of sheep came blaaaaating past. They looked at us funny, and walked around us in a circle.

To follow their route again a bit further on... 

And then disappear from the view... 

And then it started to get dark... and we had a ferry to catch! We didn't make it all the way to the top, but after walking back to the car, we'd realized we had walked a fair distance!

It was a great day, and we dreamt of lace that night...  

The next entry will be the last one on Shetland... about carding, chatting, finally grabbing hold of a sheep, a fake Lady Gaga, and two flights back home...