Shetland Gallery

Customs and Traditions - Up Helly Aa Festival - Lerwick, Shetland Isles

A Viking takes part in the Up Helly Aa festival in Lerwick on the Shetland Isles. The "Jarl Squad" dressed in viking costume formed a procession with The Galley, a 30-foot wooden longship in the Shetland Isles town. The Galley was burnt in the climax of the Up Helly Aa festival. Up Helly Aa originated as a Norse pagan festival and was then adopted by Christians to celebrate the end of the Christian Holy period with feasting and bonfires

© PA

Old Map of the Isles of Shetland and Orkney 1654 from the Atlas Novus

This detailed and most attractive reproduction map of The Isles of Shetland and Orkney, has been carefully art worked from a scan of an antique original. The famous firm of Dutch cartographers and publishers was established in the late 16th century by Willem Janszoon Blaeu in Amsterdam. Blaeu was a maker of globes and scientific instruments and purchased some of his early map plates from Jodocus Hondius. From this small beginning was to emerge one of the largest and most prolific map publishing houses of the seventeenth century

North Ham Bay, deep inlet, lichen covered red granite cliffs and stacks, seaweed

North Ham Bay, deep inlet, lichen covered red granite cliffs and stacks, seaweed, Muckle Roe Island, Shetland Isles, Scotland, United Kingdom, Europe

© Eleanor Scriven

Cliff, Cliffs, Cloud, Coastline, Color Image, Day, Daytime, Europe, Horizontal, Landscape, Muckle Roe Island, Nature, No One, No People, No Person, Nobody, North Ham Bay, Ocean, Oceans, Outdoors, Red Granite, Rock, Rock Formation, Rock Formations, Rocks, Scenics, Scotland, Sea, Seas, Shetland Islands, Tourist Destination, Tourist Destinations, Travel, Travel Destination, Travel Destinations, Uk, Water