A Company

Lerwick Walking Tour with Fort Charlotte

Excursion

Free

Duration
2h30
Season
Available all year
Min. number
0 travellers
Booking code
INCL-LER1

Enjoy a visit to Lerwick and learn the lives and history of the locals.
  • Insight into the lives and history of the people of Lerwick

  • Visit the crafts and knitwear shops of Old Town.

  • Visit Lerwick Town Hall.

  • Fort Charlotte


Take a step back in time for wonderful insight into the lives and history of the people of Lerwick. This walking tour will take you through Lerwick’s colorful and cosmopolitan history. Travel back through the centuries with lively tales of Lerwick's growth, merchant trading, fishing, shipping fleets, and smugglers.

Starting from Victoria Pier, in the heart of the Old Town, you will pass by the old Tolbooth from 1770 (recently restored and now used as the RNLI station) and go on to see the Lodberries. These were houses and warehouses sitting on their own piers for goods to be loaded and unloaded directly from the boats. They lined the shore in the 18th century, when Lerwick was the premier herring town in Northern Europe. Today we can see one of the most picturesque specimens, with its thick sea-battered walls, slipway, pier, and fish-drying shed.

Continue your walk along the Hillhead and see the town’s narrow lanes (or ‘closses’), which run down to the waterfront (subject to availability). Then visit Lerwick Town Hall. The Hall was built in 1883 and has beautiful stained-glass windows which tell a pictorial narrative of Shetland’s history from the Viking times.

Conclude your tour at the fascinating Fort Charlotte, built in 1652 to defend the sound against Dutch (and later French) warships.

After your walking tour, you can return directly to the pier with your guide or stay in the Old Town to browse the craft and knitwear shops at your leisure before walking back to the pier.

Practical information

  • Language: English.

  • Remarks/requirements: Appropriate clothing and comfortable walking shoes.

  • Walking information: 1 hour and 30 minutes of walking with some steep streets and stairs

  • Wheelchair accessible: No.

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