3 Best Sights in Unst, Orkney and Shetland Islands

A bleak moorland ending in rocky cliffs, the Hermaness National Nature Reserve is prime bird-watching territory. About half the world's population (6,000 pairs) of great skuas, called "bonxies" by locals, are found here. These sky pirates attack anything that strays near their nests, including humans, so keep to the paths. Thousands of other seabirds, including more than 50,000 puffins, nest on the cliffs, about an hour's walk from the reserve entrance. Gray seals haul out at the foot of the cliffs in fall, and offshore, dolphins and occasionally whales (including orcas) can be seen on calm days.

A path meanders across moorland and climbs up a gentle hill, from which you can see, to the north, a series of tilting offshore rocks; the largest of these sea-battered protrusions is Muckle Flugga, meaning "big, steep-sided island," on which stands a lighthouse. The lighthouse was built by engineer Thomas Stevenson, whose son, the great Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson, used the outline of Unst for his map of Treasure Island. Muckle Flugga is the northernmost point in Scotland.

Mid-May to mid-July is the best time to visit. To get here from Haroldswick, follow the B9086 around the head of Burrafirth to the signposted car park.

Scotland's northernmost castle was built in 1598 by Laurence Bruce of Cultmalindie, uncle of "cruel" Patrick Stewart. Despite being a ruin it is rather fetching, with circular corner towers and a scale-and-platt (that is, not circular but straight-on) staircase.

The unique and colorful history of the people of Unst is told in this fascinating assemblage of artifacts, tools, photographs, and reconstructions, including a classroom and a ben or "good" end (sitting room) of a croft house. It will leave you with an enduring visual memory of the ways in which the locals learned, crofted, knitted, fished, and worshipped through the last two centuries.