10 Great Things to do with kids on Shetland

It was easy to choose 10 great things to do with kids on Shetland. Okay, there aren’t theme parks, multiplex cinemas, or trampoline parks, but there is the great outdoors: amazing soft sand beaches, huge sand dunes, otters, seals, boat trips, wide open spaces, ancient buildings to explore, lovely locals and fresh clean air. What more do they need?!

1. Walk to Muckle Flugga (not for little kids)

Definitely the highlight of our trip. Not really for those afraid of heights or for little children. Ours were 10 and 8 and used to walking a few miles. All the same, you couldn’t take pushchair age kids, unless they are in a backpack.

Even then, there are quite a few steep walks, not close to the edge of the cliffs, but the drops nearby are huge. We were blessed with amazing weather but it can change quickly and I wouldn’t have wanted to be there if a mist came down. It was quite an experience to eat our sandwiches looking out to a perfectly calm sea that stretched northwards into the Arctic Circle and beyond. (I am writing a longer blog for this walk!)

2. Sumburgh Head Lighthouse & Stevenson Tearoom

Has to be one of the best views from a tearoom in Britain with panoramic views of the North Sea. If the kids don’t appreciate the views as much as the adults, there are plenty of crayons and paper from the friendly staff. There’s a great Marine Life Centre here with interactive screens as well as the lighthouse and a huge foghorn.

3. Journey to Unst

There’s nothing better on holiday with children than to be able to give them a new adventure each day. On Shetland, you can do just that. Whilst walking to Muckle Flugga was the highlight of our trip, the journey to Unst was a mini-holiday in itself. Shetland is split into three separate big islands with many smaller islands surrounding them. Unst is at the very top. From our base near the south of the main island, we made an early start to drive north to the first tiny port of Toft, not far from the Sullom Voe Oil Terminal.

I’d booked boats for the journey in advance, although you can pay by cash or cheque on board. Return fares are separate for each journey, so, we had to buy a ticket for Mainland to Yell, then Yell to Unst. We didn’t have to wait long for the ferry to arrive, which was lucky with an energetic eight year old in the car! We boarded quickly and left as the last car pulled on its hand brake. The ferry is modern and comfortable with lots of space and very few passengers. Luckily our English school holidays didn’t coincide with the ones in Scotland. So, in August, all the Scottish kids had gone back to school and we had the islands to ourselves.

Across Yell

The journey across the Bluemull to Yell takes just 25 minutes. It seems that Yell is often missed by visitors passing through quickly to get to the boat to Unst. The car journey between the two ports is 18 miles and takes about 25 minutes. As we arrived, we joined a line of 5 cars racing across the island so as not to miss the ferry. I felt a bit sorry for Yell, that they didn’t seem to have the same pull as their northern neighbour. But, you never know, they may just like it that way.

Beautifully remote like most of the amazing archipelago, Yell is just 19 miles long and the second biggest of the Shetland Islands. It has one main ring road, so we drove a different route on the return journey.

Smaller than its neighbour Yell, Unst is the destination for those ticking off the biggest, smallest, most southerly, northerly. It’s right at the top of the British isles, which made it exciting for the kids. To get there was another ferry trip, just ten minutes this time, which added to the adventure. The girls were a bit fed up with being in the car by now, so we headed straight for the Hermaness Nature Reserve to start our walk to Muckle Flugga.

4. Britain’s most northerly beach – Skaw

Had to be done. A visit to the most northerly beach in Britain! And what a beach. Peaceful. Beautiful. Perfect.

5. Five best beaches in Shetlands

There are beaches galore on Shetland. Here are our kid’s favourites:

1. Minn Beach – in the south of the Mainland, this is a beautiful beach. After a drive through nordic-style villages dotted along the shoreline, we reached the end of the road and a little car park. Minn Beach is soft white sand where sheep roam by the sea.

2. Spiggie Beach – definitely one of the best for sand-dune running. Not sure if it’s a sport, but my kids love it. The photos are deceptive, the dunes are very high, but, obviously soft so great fun for racing down.

3. St. Ninian’s Beach – A stunning beach with the largest tombolo in the UK, connecting mainland Shetland with St. Ninian’s Isle. Apparently, during the Winter the sand is blown around so below sea level and the island is cut off. Thankfully during the Summer months, we were able to walk across and walk up to the ruins of a Medieval chapel.

4. Meal Beach – Beautiful white sand, but we had to avoid the MANY purple jellyfish mixed with the seaweed. Oh, and, in case it hasn’t been fixed, beware the electrified fence on the lower cliff above the beach – it hurts!

5. Skaw Beach – okay, I’m sorry, I had to put this one in again! Right at the top, Britain’s most northerly beach and yes, it wouldn’t be just any beach, because this is Shetland. It is beautiful. A little freshwater stream has carved a channel that runs down through the sand and rocks to meet the sea. We stared northwards to the Greenland Sea and the Arctic beyond.

6. Swimming pools

There are eight swimming pools on Shetland, including five on the main island. If the weather’s not great, it’s always good to have a plan b. And, though we had good weather during our trip, we felt the kids deserved a morning at the pool after a few history excursions!

As well as a public pool, The Clickimin Leisure Complex includes a gym, squash courts, bowling hall and cafe. The pool isn’t just your bog-standard public swimming baths. It has a 6-lane, 25-metre competition pool plus two diving boards as well as a rapid river ride with geysers, airbeds and water cannon, a giant bubble pool, an outdoor lagoon with waterfall feature and two flume rides. All great fun for kids.

7. Mousa Broch

No trip to an island around Britain is complete without a day boat trip. It was a chilly morning as we waited for the boatman to arrive at Sandsayre pier. You don’t have to book the trip to the RSPB nature reserve, Mousa Island. The journey took about 15 minutes as we huddled together on deck in woolly hats and coats. Uninhabited, the one and a half miles by one mile island sits exactly on the 60 Degrees north latitude. From the small jetty, there is a designated circular walk around the island. We chose to go against the flow of other visitors and headed across the grassland. A gentle incline took us to the sea and a natural pool with seals bobbing around watching us watching them.

Further on, on the sheltered side of the small island was Mousa Broch.

8. Northernmost cafe near the beach

Britain’s northernmost café in Britain, Victoria’s Tearooms, is run by a lovely lady from Devon. Looking out over a small pebbly beach in beautiful Haroldswick Bay, the popular tearoom was a hit with the children, as huge cupcakes and milkshakes were a welcome treat after our hike to Muckle Flugga.

9. Jarlshot Prehistoric & Norse Settlement

I love my history, but it is a tall order expecting two girls, aged 9 & 7 to appreciate anything that doesn’t involve a fun ride or an ipad. But, they did enjoy our visit to Jarshof Prehistoric and Norse Settlement. There was an audio device to help us as we walked around, which really helped as the site covers 4000 years of Shetland history from the late Neolithic period to the 1600s. Fascinating! The girls loved being able to run through the ancient ruins and climb to the top of the laird’s house and inside the broch.

10. Lerwick Museum

Kids and museums don’t always mix but the clever people at the contemporary Shetland Museum in Lerwick, have thought of that by coming up with a great quiz that takes you all around the museum, through different periods of the island’s history. We spent most of the day here, trying to find one last clue! One tip – there is a great restaurant in the museum complex – book early! We tried twice to get a table but it was booked for most of the Summer. Downstairs was a smaller café, which was okay, but busy and didn’t have a great choice of food for the children.