This book is in part a travel guide to Shetland, in part a description of our recent visit to Sheltand, in part a study of how a disabled person could enjoy such a trip and partly to assess the current situation regarding tourism in Shetland and as a follow on to this study we shall be visiting Shetland again around 2020 or a little afterwards to see if the situation has been improved from the current rather confused state.
There is clearly a wealth of scenery to be had on the island(s) bit a great deal of these treasures are completely inaccessible to the less abled visitor. Indeed we found in Lerwick alone a number or areas for improvement and in the case of Fort Charlotte we could not find any access whatsoever for a visitor without the ability to climb stairs/steps.
We also found some really excellent sites such as the Shetland Museum and Hays Dock Cafe and Restaurant which are world class visitor attractions which hundreds of much large UK towns and cities would be very envious of. We look forward to the next few years and hope that Shetland will be able to rise to the challenge and provide visitor facilities in all areas of the Islands that equal the Shetland Museum standards.
Considering the proximity of Scalloway, we were rather surprised that these key Shetland attractions were not even open when we visited and shocked that there was no prepared tourist trail to highlight the Shetland Bus operation which is increasingly in the public interest.
