📌 North Roe, Shetland Mainland
★★★★
An almost inaccessible island, surrounded by wild seas and jagged rock stacks: Uyea has a real end-of-the-world feel. Located at the far northwestern tip of Shetland Mainland, there’s nothing to the north except miles of open ocean. Following the coast from Sandvoe makes for a superb approach route with dramatic scenery and an equally remote feel; for the return, there’s an inland track available which makes for quick progress. This route stops short of visiting Uyea island itself: although it is connected to the mainland at low tide by a sandy strip, getting down to the beach and up the far side appears to involve awkward scrambling in a location far from help.
📷 Chronological photo guide
🌍 Location
📌 Start / finish at Sandvoe cemetery, minor road 1 mi northwest of North Roe, Shetland Mainland
🧭 O.S. Grid Reference: HU 364908
🛰️ GPS coordinates: 60.599077,-1.337975
🚌 Infrequent bus to North Roe, elsewhere on walk route
🚗 Car park
📝 Key info
▶ 16 km / 10 mi | ▲ 450 m | ⌛ 5-6 hr
Features: 🏖️ Roer Mill beach; 🌊 Sandvoe to Uyea coastline; 🏖️ Uyea beach
⬤ Tough | Outward route mostly on grassy clifftops, occasional paths, a fair amount of ascent / descent or awkwardly cambered terrain. Return via excellent tracks & quiet road.
Download file for GPS➡️ Anticlockwise circuit: start – Uyea beach via coastline – Sand Geo – join track just south of Uyea Farm – North Roe via tracks – start via minor road
🥾 On our last visit
Wildlife: Sheep & lambs, great skuas, shags, black-throated divers, eiders with ducklings, fulmars, gulls, golden & ringed plovers, lapwings, curlew, snipe, terns. FIsh in Vatsendi Burn near the finish.
Weather: 14°C, mostly sunny with a cloudier period on the outward route. Blustery wind.
June 2024
