Shetland Islands

Islands and unitary authority off the north coast of Scotland, 80 km/50 mi northeast of the Orkney Islands, an important centre of the North Sea oil industry, and the most northerly part of the UK.

Area
1,452 sq km/560 sq mi

Towns
Lerwick (administrative headquarters), on Mainland, largest of 12 inhabited islands

Physical
the 100 islands are mostly bleak, hilly, and clad in moorland. The climate is moist, cool, and windy; in summer there is almost perpetual daylight, whilst winter days are very short. On clear winter nights, the aurora borealis (‘northern lights’) can frequently be seen in the sky

Industries
processed fish, handknits from Fair Isle and Unst, herring fishing, salmon farming, cattle and sheep farming; large oil and gas fields west of Shetland; Europe's largest oil port is Sullom Voe, Mainland; production at Foinaven oilfield, the first to be developed in Atlantic waters; tourism

Population
(2001) 22,000

History
dialect derived from Norse, the islands having been a Norse dependency from the 9th century until 1472 when they were annexed by Scotland