The Mainland is the main island of
Shetland,
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...
. The island contains Shetland's only
burgh,
Lerwick, and is the centre of Shetland's ferry and air connections.
Geography
It has an area of , making it the third-largest Scottish island and the fifth largest of the
British Isles
The British Isles are a group of islands in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner and Outer Hebrides, the Northern Isl ...
after
Great Britain
Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It ...
,
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...
,
Lewis and Harris and
Skye. Mainland is the second most populous of the
Scottish islands
This is a list of islands of Scotland, the mainland of which is part of the island of Great Britain. Also included are various other related tables and lists. The definition of an offshore island used in this list is "land that is surrounded by ...
(only surpassed by
Lewis and Harris), and had 18,765 residents in 2011
compared to 17,550 in 2001.
The mainland can be broadly divided into four sections:
*The long
southern peninsula, south of Lerwick, has a mixture of moorland and farmland and contains many important
archaeological
Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...
sites.
**
Bigton
Bigton is a small settlement on South Mainland, Shetland, UK. Bigton is within the civil parish of Dunrossness.
Bigton lies on the Atlantic coast of the island overlooking St Ninian's Isle and within view is the island of Burra, further to t ...
,
Cunningsburgh,
Sandwick,
Scalloway
Scalloway ( non, Skálavágr, "bay with the large house(s)") is the largest settlement on the west coast of the Mainland, the largest island of the Shetland Islands, Scotland. The village had a population of roughly 900, at the 2011 census. ...
, and
Sumburgh
*The
Central Mainland
The Central Mainland of the Shetland Islands is the part of the Mainland, the largest of the Shetland Islands, Scotland. It is located between Hellister, Aith
Aith, (Shetland dialect: Eid, Old Norse: ''Eið'', meaning Isthmus, cf Eday), is a ...
has more farmland and some woodland plantations.
*The
West Mainland
**
Aith
Aith, ( Shetland dialect: Eid, Old Norse: ''Eið'', meaning Isthmus, cf Eday), is a village on the Northern coast of the West Shetland Mainland, Scotland at the southern end of Aith Voe, some west of Lerwick.
Aith lies on the B9071 that runs ...
,
Walls, and
Sandness
Sandness (the "d" is not pronounced locally) is a headland and district in the west of Shetland Mainland, Scotland. Sandness was a civil parish, which also included the island of Papa Stour some 1600 metres northwest across ''Papa Sound'' ...
*The
North Mainland
The North Mainland of the Shetland Islands, Scotland is the part of the Mainland lying north of Voe (60° 21′N).
Geography
Notable places in North Mainland include:
* Sullom Voe, its oil terminal being an important source of employment ...
– in particular the large
Northmavine
Northmavine or Northmaven ( non, Norðan Mæfeið, meaning ‘the land north of the Mavis Grind’) is a peninsula in northwest Mainland Shetland in Scotland. The peninsula has historically formed the civil parish Northmavine. The modern North ...
peninsula, connected to Mainland by a narrow
isthmus at
Mavis Grind – is wild, with much moorland and coastal
cliff
In geography and geology, a cliff is an area of rock which has a general angle defined by the vertical, or nearly vertical. Cliffs are formed by the processes of weathering and erosion, with the effect of gravity. Cliffs are common on co ...
s. The North Mainland contains
Sullom Voe
Sullom Voe is an inlet of the North Sea between the parishes of Delting and Northmavine in Shetland, Scotland. It is a location of the Sullom Voe oil terminal and Shetland Gas Plant. The word Voe is from the Old Norse ' and denotes a small b ...
, the location of an oil terminal providing an important source of employment for islanders.
**
Brae
:''"Brae" is also the Lowland Scots language word for the slope or brow of a hill.''
Brae (Old Norse: ''Breiðeið'', meaning "the wide isthmus") is a village on the island of Mainland in Shetland, Scotland, United Kingdom.
Description
Brae wa ...
,
North Roe
North Roe is a village, and protected area at the northern tip in the large Northmavine peninsula of the Mainland of Shetland, Scotland. It is a small village, with a school with less than a dozen pupils in 2011. The moorland plateau to the ...
, and
Vidlin
See also
*
List of islands of Scotland
*
List of islands of the British Isles
*
Mainland, Orkney
The Mainland, also known as Hrossey and Pomona, is the main island of Orkney, Scotland. Both of Orkney's burghs, Kirkwall and Stromness, lie on the island, which is also the heart of Orkney's ferry and air connections.
Seventy-five per cent of ...
References
External links
Islands of Shetland
{{Shetland-geo-stub