County Dossier
Shetland
Island county of Norse sagas and northern seas.
Shetland is a county formed from a northern archipelago of over a hundred islands, of which around sixteen are inhabited.
At a glance
Shetland at a glance
Island county of Norse sagas and northern seas.
- Norse ‘Hjaltland' 9th Century
- Scottish crown from 1472
- Lerwick = county town
- Area: 551 sq miles
- Population: 23,167
- County Top: Ronas Hill
County Geography
Shetland has no landward county neighbour and is separated from Orkney by the northern seas, while the county otherwise faces the North Sea and Atlantic waters on every side. The county is shaped by the long Mainlands and sounds, steep rocky coasts, voes, and the outer island chain running north to Unst and outward to Fair Isle and the Out Skerries.
Shetland is easy to recognise through Mainland, the North Isles, and the outlying sea-bound islands.
Map Reference
View Shetland on the map
Shetland is the county. The map also shows lieutenancies and council areas that use the county name.
The county.
The lieutenancy.
Council areas.
Places and routes
Lerwick, Scalloway, Unst, Fair Isle, and the Out Skerries show the county from its east and west Mainland centres to the northern and far sea-bounded outer edges.
Connections
The county’s routes have long run through Lerwick and Mainland and then outward by ferry and sea passage to the northern and outer islands. Movement follows the same Mainland, sea-passage, and island-chain pattern.
Names
- Shetland
- County of Shetland
- Zetland
- County of Zetland
- Sealtainn
Sealtainn is the Gaelic form of Shetland. County of Shetland is the formal historical style, Zetland and County of Zetland are later documentary forms, and the older Norse background appears in the name Hjaltland.
The county belonged to the Norse world before passing to the Scottish crown in 1472, and Lerwick later became its county town. The island chain still reads as one historic county.