RCAHMS: Exploring Scotland's Heritage - Shetland, 1997

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Date 1997

Event ID 1039064

Category Project

Type Project

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1039064

Exploring Scotland's Heritage

Some 60 detailed site descriptions from this publication were entered into Canmore in 2017. The book was a collaboration between the author Dr. Anna Ritchie and RCAHMS staff, and aimed to provide a thorough introduction to a wide range of monuments (dating from prehistoric to recent times) in a region of Scotland.

Information from HES Survey and Recording (GFG) 22 June 2018

People and Organisations

Related Event(s)

Event	Type	Subtype	Notes	Date
1017008	DESCRIPTIVE ACCOUNTS	PUBLICATION ACCOUNT	'It is proposed to have a light on Sumburgh-head, which is the first land made by vessels coming from the eastward; Fitful-head is higher, but it is to the west, from which quarter few vessels come.' Thus wrote Sir Walter Scott in his journal in 1814, and a lighthouse was duly built on 'this tremendous cape' by Robert Stevenson six years later. The great height of the headland itself meant that only a short tower was needed, and it was built with three floors rising to a lantern cupola (later replaced with a modern lantern). The design of the original lantern and the elegant keepers' quarters can be appreciated from the drawing showing the landward elevation. Part of the keepers' accommodation is now used by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, for Sumburgh Head is home to one of Shetland's largest colonies of puffins. [...]	1997
1017020	DESCRIPTIVE ACCOUNTS	PUBLICATION ACCOUNT	The immediate surroundings of Busta House are sufficiently sheltered to have allowed trees to mature around it and yet it enjoys a magnificent view across Busta Voe and beyond. An early 19th-century visitor so admired the garden with its mountain ashes, plane trees and elders after a long and bleak journey that he wrote: 'nothing can give greater cheer to the fatigued vision, when so long satiated with the superfluous waste of bare and tenantless scatholds'. At that time Shetland possessed very few surfaced roads, but Busta had its own paved road stretching out some 1.5km into that bare landscape. The composite house of today is the result of several phases of building, and the overall effect is very pleasing, from the house itself to its terraced grounds embellished by pairs of carved stone gargoyles. These were acquired many years ago during restoration of the House of Commons in London! [...]	1997
1017030	DESCRIPTIVE ACCOUNTS	PUBLICATION ACCOUNT	The whole of the island of Noss is a National Nature Reserve administered by Scottish Natural Heritage. It is home to breeding colonies of gannets, fulmars, guillemots, kittiwakes, razorbills, puffins and many more, and there are also areas of beautiful wild flowers. The island is some 313 hectares in extent, sloping up eastwards to the formidable cliffs of the Noup, and Sir WaIter Scort in 1814 described its attractions. 'The eastern part of the isle is fine smooth pasture, the best I have seen in these isles, sloping upwards to the verge of the tremendous rocks which form its eastern front'. It was this fine pasture that encouraged the Marquis of Londonderry to acquire the lease of the island in 1870 in order to breed Shetland ponies for use in his coal mines in County Durham. The pony pund at Gungstie was built for breeding ponies with 'as much weight as possible and as near the ground as it can be got'. [...]	1997

RCAHMS: Exploring Scotland's Heritage - Shetland, 1997

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References