Where on earth are we?
The Shetland Islands are 180 km (100m) north of John O'Groats,- the most northerly place in Scotland - midway between Scotland, Norway and the Faroe Islands. They consist of over 100 islands, 15 of which are inhabited. With a total area of 1468 square kilometres (567 square miles) and a coastline of about 1500 kilometres (900miles), they are home to 22,000 Shetlanders. Fishing and fish processing (including aquaculture), oil production, agriculture and tourism are the principal means of employment.
The local media consist of a commercial radio station, a daily BBC community opt out, a weekly newspaper and several monthly publications.
Communications consist of several daily flights to Aberdeen as well as services to Orkney, Inverness and Edinburgh, together with a daily ferry to Aberdeen and a weekly ferry to Faroe and Denmark.
The climate is temperate, daytime temperatures varying between 6.4 degrees C in January to 16.7 degrees C in August with about 1000mm of rain (1997 figures). Most notable feature of the climate is the relative lack of frost and snow, together with the quantity and quality of the wind - always available in generous quantities.
Even if you've never heard of Shetland, you'll probably come across our tiny Shetland Ponies and Shetland woolens. There are a number of breeds of animal unique to Shetland including sheep and cattle.
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