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Shetland, Scotland. Looking for wildlife tour on Shetland

Hi,

I'm trying to find a wildlife tour (for the Day) of Shetland.

Any recommendations...

Thanks for your help,

Chris Z

Posted by
16644 posts

I have not done a separate wildlife tour on Shetland but the wildlife guy I used on Orkney, Raymond Besant, also works for this company providing tours on Orkney.

https://www.shetlandnature.net/tour-leaders/

In looking at their other tour leaders, I see Kate Humble listed. She does UK nature shows that have been on my local PBS station. Friends of friends did a winter tour with her last year on Shetland to go to the Up Helly AA festival in Lerwick and had a great time with her.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kate_Humble

I'm sure they have a FB page if you want to follow them to see what you think. That is what I did with Raymond and I was well-pleased!

Posted by
16644 posts

Oh gosh, Wasley's post reminded me I've actually done 2 boat trips around the Noss and Isle of Bressay to look at birds and look for other wildlife.

In 2023 I did a boat trip with the company Wasleys mentions - https://www.shetlandseabirdtours.com/noss-boat-trip/. The boat is open although it has plexiglass walls. The boat skipper is also the narrator. He fed gannets thru a tube to get them to dive. I was not crazy about that as I'm not a fan of feeding wildlife for any reason.

In 2025 I did a boat trip with https://seabirds-and-seals.com/the-noss-boat/ This boat was bigger and had an enclosed area in case there is rain or it's windy plus the back deck area with seating was big enough to walk around. They also had an area where you could stow daypacks to keep them from getting wet. I actually liked this tour better than the first one due to the boat size as well as having the skipper pilot the boat and his wife, Marie was on the back deck with us and doing the narration. They also pulled up in a sheltered cove and brought out tea and biscuits, lol!! We saw an otter from our anchorage point which I loved! They also provided whisper sets for Marie to use so we could hear her over the roar of the engines.

I also did a boat trip out to Mousa Broch on both visits to see this Iron Age structure as well as to try and see the Storm Petrels.

Are you going to be in Shetland for a few days or will you be visiting as part of a cruise port stop? Asking because Mousa would be out of the question for a cruise day unless the cruise line provided this as a tour and would hold the boat for your return.