Sumburgh Head is a

headland A headland, also known as a head, is a coastal landform, a point of land usually high and often with a sheer drop, that extends into a body of water. It is a type of promontory. A headland of considerable size often is called a cape.Whittow, J ...

located at the southern tip of the

Shetland Mainland The Mainland is the main island of Shetland, Scotland. 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 ...

in northern

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 head consists of a 100 m high rocky spur and topped by the

Sumburgh Head Lighthouse Sumburgh Head Lighthouse is a lighthouse on Sumburgh Head at the southern tip of the Mainland of Shetland. History The lighthouse was built by Robert Stevenson in 1821 and is the oldest lighthouse in Shetland. From 1906 until 1987 there was a ...

. In the Old Norse language, Sumburgh Head was called ''Dunrøstar høfdi'', it means "The Head onto the loud tide-race", referring to the noise of Sumburgh Roost.

Robert Stevenson Robert Stevenson may refer to: * Robert Stevenson (actor and politician) (1915–1975), American actor and politician * Robert Stevenson (civil engineer) (1772–1850), Scottish lighthouse engineer * Robert Stevenson (director) (1905–1986), Engli ...

was the engineer in charge of building the Sumburgh Head lighthouse. Work started on the building in 1819, and the light was first lit in 1821.

Local ecology

The area is now recognized as a nature reserve by the

Royal Society for the Protection of Birds The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is a charitable organisation registered in England and Wales and in Scotland. It was founded in 1889. It works to promote conservation and protection of birds and the wider environment thro ...

. The cliffs are home to large numbers of seabirds with 33,000 puffins being estimated in the year 2000. These numbers have declined sharply: for example only 570 of the birds were counted in 2017. The decline in Puffin numbers also appears to apply to other species native to Sumburgh Head.Eerie silence falls on Shetland cliffs that once echoed to seabirds’ cries
the guardian.com, Robin McKie, 3 June 2018 In as birds, Sumburgh Head has become a popular viewing point for

whales Whales are a widely distributed and diverse group of fully aquatic placental marine mammals. As an informal and colloquial grouping, they correspond to large members of the infraorder Cetacea, i.e. all cetaceans apart from dolphins and ...

and dolphins.

Nearby locations

Sumburgh Airport Sumburgh Airport is the main airport serving Shetland in Scotland. It is located on the southern tip of the mainland, in the parish of Dunrossness, south of Lerwick. The airport is owned by Highlands and Islands Airports Limited (HIAL) and ...

, which takes its name from the head, lies immediately to the north, and serves as the main airport for the Shetland Islands. Flights from here connect to mainland Scotland, the Orkney Islands and

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of ...

. Also close to the Sumburgh Head is the archaeological site of

Jarlshof Jarlshof ( ) is the best-known prehistoric archaeological site in Shetland, Scotland. It lies in Sumburgh, Mainland, Shetland and has been described as "one of the most remarkable archaeological sites ever excavated in the British Isles". It co ...

, at which a series of settlements existed dating back to the

neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several pa ...

period. The tiny settlement of Grutness, which is the terminus of the Shetland Mainland to Fair Isle

ferry A ferry is a ship, watercraft or amphibious vehicle used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water ta ...

service, lies north of Sumburgh Head.

References

External links

*
Images from around Sumburgh
{{coord, 59.85429, N, 1.27531, W, region:GB_source:enwiki-osgb36(HU407079), display=title Special Protection Areas in Scotland Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Shetland Headlands of Scotland Protected areas of Shetland Royal Society for the Protection of Birds reserves in Scotland Landforms of Shetland Mainland, Shetland