Ride from Walls

Click mills
Click mills

After a bright start, the mist descended. We cycled the Walls Loop, branching off to take in Sandness and Huxter, along undulating single track roads. At Deepdale we rode a short way along a rough track to the stony beach, where we intended to walk up to the cliffs but terns must have been nesting in the vicinity as they made it very clear that our presence was unwelcome. Not wishing to disturb them, we retreated and cycled past lochans to Sandness, seeing curlews, lapwings, whimbrels, oystercatchers and wheatears along the way. We ate our lunch during a bright spell before continuing onwards to Huxter. The cliff walk from here took us past a trio of horizontal water mills, known as click mills, easier to build than the normal vertical wheeled mills but less efficient. The cliffs beyond were severely eroded by the Atlantic, we walked along them for a short way seeing puffins, nesting fulmars and guillemots.

On our return, we climbed up on foot to see the Scord of Braester, the earliest remains of a Shetland farm, dating back to 3000BC. It ceased to be viable around 1500BC when the climate changed and Shetland became colder and wetter, the fertile land turning into peat bog. We were back in the bod by 16:00 so went for a walk along the loch shore. When we returned I got the peat stove going, with some difficulty, not the most efficient of fuels and the fire didn’t have much effect on the room temperature.

Walls to Lerwick