the corner office

Fethaland is the northernmost tip of Shetland's Mainland (pretty much any blog or web site out there mentioning it, and I've come across a few, starts out by saying this). It once hosted a fishing station, abandoned over a century ago, and is now just the furthest reach of someone's farm, with a lighthouse, a number of ruined stone huts, and many sheep.

To get there, you trudge along a farm road, then crest a hill, and far in the distance you see this:

The Isle of Fethaland is connected to the mainland by a narrow stretch of rock and turf, making coves on each side. This is looking north from the western cove.

The Isle itself has a steep climb to the lighthouse. This is a few metres past the lighthouse:

The island in the distance is called Gruney, and beyond it, the Ramna Stacks. Nowhere in the UK beats Shetland for magical names - and that's before mentioning that one of the stacks next to Gruney is called Flae-ass.

Also not so obvious from this photo is that is on the side of a 60m high cliff - a little more obvious looking south.

I didn't go closer to the cliff edge because I promised Ronwen I wouldn't do anything silly, and she needn't have worried, obviously, because when it comes to perilous heights I'm a total wuss anyway.

An artsy shot of the lighthouse, with the sun behind it. I took this at about 1pm. This is pretty far north.

The western cove counts as one of my Happy Places.

... and is probably the remotest place I've ever eaten an apricot jam sandwich. Long story.