Hillswick, Hillswick House

A sheltered bay on the west side of Ura Firth accounts for the location of the village. One of the wings of Hillswick House is the Booth bar, which may have originated in the 18th century as a merchant's store. There are elaborately carved 18th-century tombstones built into the wall on either side of the entrance to the graveyard. Hillswick House itself was built around 1800 with dormer windows added in Victorian times. The present parish church was built in 1869, and the fortunes of the village expanded with a fledgling tourist trade towards the end of the century.

The most remarkable monument to that tourist trade is the St Magnus Hotel. It is remarkable because, in a treeless landscape, it is built of wood.It stands on the slope above the harbour, painted white and black to ensure that it was visible as the cruise passengers sailed into the voe. The materials were imported from Norway by the North of Scotland & Orkney & Shetland Steam Navigation Company, and their capacious hotel was erected in 1900. It has two stories and an attic, and the hall and dining-room retain their fine panelling of stained pine. The guests, who had embarked at Leith, were entertained with guided tours of Shetland with the hotel as their base. These cruises came to an end in 1971, bur the hotel is still a welcoming sight.

Information from ‘Exploring Scotland’s Heritage: Shetland’, (1997).