Local Area
The properties in St Olaf Street and Prince Alfred Street were originally grand, stone-built homes. They have been well maintained, brought up-to-date and split into reasonable sized flats / apartments / bedsits. These properties lie at the heart of residential Lerwick, a few minutes walk from the town centre.
Lerwick, Britain's most northerly town, is the capital and the main commercial and fishing port of the Shetland Islands. With a population of around 10,000 it is home to Europe's largest Viking fire festival, Up-Helly-Aa (held annually on the last Tuesday in January). Shetland Accommodation overlooks Lerwick's central parks and the Up-Helly-Aa procession passes immediately in front of it.
Lerwick is renowned as the place to hear why Shetland has an internationally recognised musical heritage. Islesburgh Community Centre, the hub of this international activity, is on the doorstep. Amongst its many services it offers: free internet access, a café serving hot food opening from 8.30am - 7.00pm (Saturday until 6pm) and Sunday 12 noon until 4pm. It is a prominent venue at Up-Helly-Aa, in addition to hosting the festival club during the internationally renowned Folk Festival in May and the highly acclaimed Accordion and Fiddle Festival in October.
A few minutes' walk from the properties, there are scenic walks and a free 9-hole golf course around the shores and cliffs of the Knab. Shopping in the town consists of two supermarkets (the Co-op and Tesco), a small shopping centre and a town centre made up of small, independent retailers.
In Lerwick there are a variety of places to eat, pubs to suit most tastes, a library with free internet access (around the corner from Shetland Accommodation), a modern award-winning museum, an iron-age broch, a ferry terminal, bus station, taxi firms and a very advanced indoor leisure centre.