Walk: Esha Ness – curious holes & windswept gulls

📌 Esha Ness, Shetland Mainland
★★★★

Far out west on a remote peninsula, Esha Ness Lighthouse presides over a wild and windswept coastline. The scenery here is some of the finest on Shetland Mainland, with narrow geos, arches and sea stacks reaching nearly 50 metres above sea level in places, frequented by gulls, fulmars and a few other seabirds (with a few puffins to see at Calder’s Geo if you’re lucky). Follow the clifftop north and the rock architecture gradually becomes less dramatic; Croo Loch seems as good a place as any at which to turn back. The return route can be varied slightly by visiting the curious Holes of Scraada – a 150 metre-long sea cave which has collapsed at its inland end – and a ruined broch set on a spur of land jutting into the Loch of Houlland.

📷 Chronological photo guide

🌍 Location

📌 Start / finish at Esha Ness Lighthouse, minor road end 2 mi west of Braewick, Shetland Mainland

🧭 O.S. Grid Reference: HU 206785

🛰️ GPS coordinates: 60.489449,-1.626652

❌ No public transport within 1 mi

🚗 Car park

📝 Key info

▶ 6 km / 4 mi | ▲ 100 m | ⌛ 2 hr

Features: 🌊 Esha Ness coastline

⬤ Easy | Grassy clifftops with gentle gradients, mostly with faint paths.

➡️ Clockwise circuit with extension to Croo Loch: start – Croo Loch via coastline – return by outward route as far as Villians of Ure – landward side of Holes of Scraada – Loch of Houlland broch – start

Download file for GPS

🥾 On our last visit

Wildlife: Sheep & lambs. Whooper swans on Croo Loch, fulmars, gulls, guillemots, oystercatches, wheatears.

Weather: 11°C, cloudy with some glimpses of brightness & spots of rain. Windy.

June 2024