South Mainland

Overview

South Mainland is the peninsula which runs 25 miles from Shetland's capital, Lerwick, to Sumburgh Head in the far south.

Stunning scenery abounds in Shetland's South Mainland, such as the wild windswept sweep of Quendale Bay, fearsome Fitful Head and the plunging vertical cliffs of Sumburgh Head. An extraordinary concentration of archaeological sites are found here, including Mousa, Europe's best-preserved broch, and the remarkable Iron Age village at Jarlshof, where you can make yourself at home in a 1600 year-old house. Birdwatchers will be in rapture here, whether peeking at puffins at their burrows, surrounded by six thousand storm petrels at Mousa Broch or finding far-blown waifs from all points of the compass.