Letters / Scotland has failed Shetland since day one
Scotland has failed Shetland. Not just once. Not just recently. But relentlessly — for more than five centuries.
For anyone interested in Shetland’s history, they’ll know that it’s a conflicting picture. One of prosperity and fairness as a province of Norway, but colonisation and oppression under Scotland.
This may be uncomfortable for some, but we cannot ignore over 400 years of history. Those who lived through Scotland’s cruelty deserve to have their story told. Please don’t interpret this as hatred towards the people of Scotland — the common Scot cannot be held accountable for any of this, and believing so is nothing short of extremism. I will never support hatred — but I do support Shetland’s dark history being talked about honestly.
The seizure
We were never a gift, never “part of Scotland” legally or by choice. For the legal facts behind that, see my previous letter: Norway Never Gave Away Shetland.
The beginning of the 400 year long nightmare
After unlawfully taking Shetland, Scotland did not govern us with care — it overrode our law, evicted our people from their homes, banned our Norse names, replaced our language, stomped out our traditions, and even mangled our place names to fit Scottish tongues.
Our Udal law — the fair Norse legal system that tied Shetlanders to their ancestral lands, written down by King Magnus the Lawmender — made land allodial, owned outright by families. Scotland replaced it with feudal law, where the Crown owned all land and Shetlanders became tenants in their own homeland. It was a system built for control, and it opened the door for centuries of exploitation.
Scotland didn’t just replace our laws — it imposed them through crown-appointed men who ruled like tyrants.
The worst was Earl Patrick Stewart — “Black Patie.” From Scalloway Castle, built with forced labour, he bled Shetlanders dry — seizing boats, rigging weights, and crushing udal owners with debt. He was accused of destroying our law-book — and whether or not that’s true, he gutted our law in practice.
This is colonialism in its purest form: replacing a native legal system with an imposed one, stripping a people of their rights, and profiting from their subjugation. That is exactly what Scotland did to Shetland.
And the exploitation never ended. For centuries Shetlanders were trapped in the truck system — paid in goods, kept in debt, and tied to merchant-lairds who owned both the crofts and the boats. It was so corrupt that a Royal Commission had to come to Lerwick in 1872 to hear evidence of the abuse.
Under Scottish rule, Shetlanders were evicted from their homes — not just once or twice — but consistently over the centuries. In the 1820s, Fetlar saw mass clearances under Sir Arthur Nicolson, with hundreds evicted. In the 1850s, Weisdale valley lost over 300 people. Those who carried out these clearances and evictions didn’t see us as people — only as a source of rent and labour. Families were evicted, their homes torn down, and whole communities destroyed.
This is not distant history. One of my own relatives was thrown off her croft in 1890 after her husband died, left with bairns to raise. The laird took her home and forced her to work for the minister. She was sent to live in a tiny house where a cow was kept at one end and her family at the other. That was the value placed on Shetland lives, for centuries.
Almost every Shetlander has a story like this in their family.
Shetland = Scotland’s colony
Shetland was taken without consent, has been governed without a legal treaty from the 1500s to this very day, ruled by foreign law, stripped of its culture, its people oppressed — from the 1500s to the 1900s — and now exploited for resources. Call it what it is — a colony.
Today, the pattern of exploitation continues. Shetland produces oil, gas, fish, and now wind energy on a scale far beyond our population — yet our infrastructure is neglected, our lifeline transport costs are extortionate, and our communities receive little in funding. Scotland can’t talk about fairness when we’re treated like a resource base.
The erasure and the conditioning
Even now, our bairns are raised in a school system that tells them more about Scotland than Hjaltland. It’s a disgrace that they aren’t taught about their own history and culture. They learn more about Robert the Bruce than Magnus the Lawmender — one with no significance to our history and the lives of our ancestors. The other, a king we lived directly under, who wrote down and protected our legal system, Udal Law.
There’s no Norn, no saga references, no Norse Shetland folklore.
Is it any wonder some Shetlanders are confused about their identity? Many grow up never being taught the truth of our history — and are led to believe Shetland is just a Scottish island with a Norse “influence.” That is exactly how the coloniser wants the story to be told. The truth is, we don’t have a Norse “influence” — we have Norse origins. You wouldn’t say the Faroe Islands have a Norse “influence,” would you?
Shetland’s culture, heritage, and identity have been so diluted and replaced that some folk now look to Scotland to find their own. If that doesn’t tell you something, what possibly could?
Our culture, heritage, and identity were never Scottish. We have our own — a rich, authentic Norse Shetland culture and identity to be proud of. Our youth shouldn’t be looking to Scotland to find their culture. It can’t be found there. But it can be found here in this very land, or in the lands to our east or west, where our true roots lie.
I see it first-hand — Shetlanders in kilts, looking to Scotland for an identity that was never ours. Now, who am I to tell you what to wear? If you love Highland dress and want to wear it — go for it! I’ve no issue with that. My problem is when people believe that tartan and kilts are our legacy. Because in reality — they’re not. That’s not opinion, it’s historical fact.
Gaelic and Scottish symbols have no place in Shetland’s heritage
We’re now seeing Gaelic creeping into Shetland — unacceptable. Thistle symbols slapped onto our road signs — equally unacceptable. We have no historic or cultural link to the thistle. Instead, our signs should have symbols of our own heritage — a raven, Fair Isle patterns, or a longship/sixareen.
Yet again, this is just another example of Scotland’s never-ending failure in Shetland.
The struggle for survival
Shetland is fighting for its life — whether it be our ferry services, our crumbling hospital, or the endless wind farm projects forced on us. The list goes on. Do we really want to live like this? We know full well what a disaster it is being under Scotland and the UK — but are we willing to finally break the chains, or will we strengthen them?
The elections are coming, yet hardly anyone is excited. Wonder why? It’s difficult to believe any party truly has Shetland’s best interest at heart, especially the Scottish Nationalist Party. There’s a reason the SNP performs so poorly here — it’s not coincidence. Shetlanders don’t reject them out of stubbornness or ignorance, but because trust in Scotland was never built in the first place. For centuries Shetlanders have been undeniably failed by Scotland.
No matter who has a seat at their table, they’ll never respect nor care about us.
Look at the hypocrisy…
The SNP never speak up about Shetland being colonised and illegally ruled by Scotland. They condemn the 1707 Union with England. But when it comes to Shetland — never lawfully transferred, only seized and occupied — they turn a blind eye. They demand self-determination for Scotland, yet ignore it for Shetland.
But can you imagine the excitement across Shetland if we were presented with the opportunity for an actual change? Imagine, Shetlanders had the chance to determine their own future, remain with Scotland, or rejoin Norway. Every single house in Shetland would be seriously talking about it with a great deal of passion and meaningfulness.
This is what we should be strongly considering and pursuing, our rightful place back in this world, the place we were so corruptly torn from. With our open legal status, only we — the Shetlanders — can make this happen.
Some in Shetland think we can’t return home — but that’s exactly what Scotland and the UK want you to believe. They don’t want to lose their cash cow.
The future with Norway
Look at Norway. Their rural communities are thriving. Their islands are connected by tunnels and modern, reliable ferries. Compare that with Shetland and the difference is astonishing. Norway invests in its islands. Scotland exploits and neglects them — especially Shetland.
If you want proof of how little Edinburgh cares for Shetland, look at our seas and our land. They auction off our waters to big wind companies, and they let the Viking Wind Farm tear the central mainland apart. We watched it happen, powerless. The vast majority here never wanted it, and many are still furious — someone even left their home. And to make matters worse, there are more projects on the horizon. To Edinburgh it’s nothing; to us it’s everything — the land and sea that have sustained Shetlanders for over a thousand years. You see the same with fishing, sold out time after time, and with funding — we give everything, but are handed back only scraps.
Norway is developed, forward-thinking, and values its islands and heritage. Shetland could truly thrive if we were part of our original nation again — part of a country we aren’t strangers to, but kin of.
Tell me honestly — could it possibly be any worse than being with Scotland? They haven’t exactly set the bar very high.
On a visit to Norway, while checking into a hotel, the man at the desk noticed my name — Magnus — and my accent. Yet of course I had to write “British” for my nationality. He looked at me and asked, “You are British, with that accent?” I laughed and said, “I’m from Shetland.” His face lit up: “Oh! Welcome home! Did you know the Norwegians settled Shetland?” I told him I knew fine and well, and it was great to be back in the fatherland. Another time, a Norwegian asked me simply: “When are you coming home?”
We are no strangers in Norway. If you doubt it, go there, say you’re from Shetland, and you’ll be greeted as kin.
The reality
Scotland has failed Shetland — politically, culturally, economically. We are Norse islands under foreign rule.
The truth is simple: Scotland only cares about one thing when it comes to Shetland — extracting wealth. Shetland’s future will never be secure in the hands of a nation that has proven, century after century, it doesn’t care about us.
No one will give Shetland its future — we have to claim it ourselves.
Magnus Hutchison
Whalsay
