Sumburgh Head Lighthouse
Local highlightA Stevenson lighthouse of 1821 on the southern tip of Shetland, set above big seabird cliffs where puffins nest
Sumburgh Head is the southern point of Shetland’s Mainland, a steep grassy headland dropping to the sea, and the white lighthouse on top was the first ever built in Shetland. Robert Stevenson designed it, from the family of engineers who lit much of the Scottish coast, and it first shone in 1821. The Northern Lighthouse Board, who run the lights of Scotland, still keep it working, automated now, and the old keepers’ cottages house an RSPB visitor centre. In late spring and summer the cliffs fill with nesting seabirds, and this is one of the easiest places anywhere to get close to puffins, which burrow in the turf near the wall. Jarlshof, a remarkable layered archaeological site, is just up the road, and the whole of Shetland spreads north from here.
