SHETLAND or ZETLAND, a group of islands constituting a county of Scotland, and the most northerly British possession in Europe. It consists of an archipelago of more than ioo islands and islets, north-east of Orkney, between 59° 50' and 6o° 52' N. and 55' and 2° 14' W., and bounded on the west by the Atlantic and east by the North sea. The distance from Dennis head in North Ronaldshay of the Orkneys to Sumburgh head in Shetland is 5o m., but Fair Isle, which belongs to Shetland, lies midway between the groups. The islands occupy an area of 352,319 ac. (excluding water). Besides Mainland, the principal member of the group, the more important are Yell, Unst and Fetlar in the north, Whalsay and Bressay in the east, Trondra, East and West Burra, Papa Stour, Muckle Roe and Foula in the west, and Fair Isle in the south. The surface of the islands is irregular, frequently rising into considerable hills. Most of the scenery consists of treeless and barren tracts of peat and boul ders, but the coast scenery is picturesque and grand, the cliffs, precipices of brilliant colouring, reaching a height over i,000 ft. at some places. The shores are so extensively indented with voes, or firths—the result partly of denudation and partly caused by glaciers--that no spot in Shetland is more than 3 m. from the sea. There are freshwater lochs in the larger islands and numer ous short streams. The principal capes are Sumburgh head, the most southerly point of Mainland; and Fitful head, on the south west of the same island, 2 m. in length and nearly i,000 ft. high, where Norna, the prophetess of Sir Walter Scott's Pirate, was supposed to have her abode and which the Norsemen called the White Mountain, from the colour of the clay slate composing it.
The geological character of the islands resembles that of north ern Scotland. Old Red Sandstone, red grits, sandstones and marls and conglomerate occur in a narrow belt on the east side of Main land and form the island of Bressay. In the western portion of Mainland there is a considerable tract of rocks of this age which are formed largely of intrusive diabase-porphyrite ; similar vol canic rocks occur in Papa Stour. These are penetrated by granitic and felsitic intrusions; one of these masses in Papa Stour is a handsome pink felsite. Practically all the remainder of the islands
is occupied by metamorphic schists and gneisses with which are associated dikes and masses of intrusive igneous rock.
History and Antiquities.—The word Shetland is supposed to be simply a modernized rendering of the Old Norse Hjaltland, of which the meaning is probably "high land." Of the prehistoric inhabitants remains exist in the form of stone circles (three in Unst and two in Fetlar) and broths (of which 75 examples sur vive). The islanders were converted to Christianity in the 6th and 7th centuries by Irish missionaries, in commemoration of whose zeal several isles bear the name of Papa or "priest." Four stones with Ogam inscriptions have been found at different places. About the end of the 8th century both the Shetlands and Orkneys suffered from the depredations of Norse vikings, or pirates, until Harold Haarfager annexed the islands to Norway in 875. Henceforward the history of Shetland is scarcely sep arable from that of Orkney (q.v.). The people, more remote and less accessible to external influences, retained their Scandi navian characteristics longer than the Orcadians. The Norse lan guage and customs survived in Foula till the end of the i8th century, and phrases of Norse origin still colour the speech.
Agriculture and Industries.—In spite of adverse climatic conditions, live stock is reared with a fair amount of success. The well-known Shetland breed of shaggy ponies is in steady demand.
The native cattle, also diminutive in size, furnish fine beef and milk. The native sheep possess many of the characteristics of goats. Their wool is long and fine. It is customary to pluck the wool by hand rather than shear it. Black-faced and Cheviots are also found in some places. Large numbers of poultry and small pigs are kept. The lochs and tarns are well stocked with brown trout, and the voes and gios, or narrow inlets of the sea with steep rocks on both sides, abound with sea trout. Whales of various species are frequently captured in the bays and sounds, and whal ing is carried on from a base on Olna firth, on Mainland. The grampus, dolphin and porpoise haunt the coasts, and seals are caught. There is an immense variety of water-fowl.