We went to Shetland because my husband was sailing in a dinghy racing championship and we had had a warm invitation to go to Burravoe on Yell and take part.  It was mid June , so we never saw the dark, sheep merrily grazing at 4.00am in bright sunshine!! No good for sunsets and sunrises.  We missed the heatwave at home and had good weather by Shetland standards ie it didn’t blow a full gale and didn’t rain very much, but was rather gloomy most of the time.  A single bright day of sunshine we were warned, would be followed by fog as the warm islands are surrounded by so much cold sea, and so it was 2 days of it!! It was a very rich visitor experience,  so much geology, geography, archeology , botany , ornithology etc etc.. The landscape was very strange with no trees and a thick covering of peat.  Walking off piste was quite hazardous as I found out to my cost when a leg was being firmly sucked downwards – quite scary!! There are 20 sheep to every person but it felt like 100, never out of sight, everyone owned some.  Wonderful roads and masses of toilets – oil money perhaps.  Very few people , no crime and a great welcome from those people we did meet.  the walking was wonderful, 1600 miles of stunning coastline available.