Lerwick is centered around its busy harbour, particularly during the summer months, when cruise liners, yachts and motor cruisers arrive from ports all around the North Atlantic. Lerwick has a population of around 7500, approximately one third of Shetland's total population. The shops, pubs, restaurants, hotels and guesthouses bustle all year with locals, visiting businessmen, tourists and seafarers.
Places of interest include Clickimin Broch - an outstanding example of Bronze Age and Iron Age architecture; Fort Charlotte - built in 1665; the Bod of Gremista - an 18th century fishing booth; the picture-postcard Lodberries - old merchants' houses with their own piers; and the Museum, with a fascinating collection of artefacts illustrating Shetland's history, tradition and crafts - knitting, spinning, lace-making, fiddle music and Up-Helly-Aa.
For 24 hours, on the last Tuesday of January, the town of Lerwick goes more than a little mad.
"There will be no postponement for weather". That's a defiant boast by Shetland's biggest fire festival, considering it's held in mid-winter on the same latitude as southern Greenland. But it's true: gales, sleet and snow have never yet stopped the Up Helly Aa guizers of Lerwick from burning their Viking galley - and then dancing the dawn away.
