Just up the road from Vidlin is the community of Lunna. The infamous Shetland Bus was run out of Lunna House between 1941 and 1945. The Shetland Bus provided a permanent link between Shetland and Nazi occupied Norway. Treacherous journeys were made under the cover of darkness in winter across the North Sea in one of a fleet of small fishing boats.
The Norwegian Naval Independent Unit set up base in Lerwick, initially asking skippers of boats returning from Norway if they could deliver agents back to Norway and return others to Shetland. Before long a group was formally established out of Lunna House whose purpose was to transfer agents in and out of Norway and supply them with weapons, radios and whatever else was necessary. Needless to say not all of them made the journey and those who did were often caught and killed on the spot or tortured. These were brave men indeed.
The isolated position of Lunna was ideal, with the added bonus of a sheltered harbour and its situation on the eastern side of Shetland. Below is the pier from which the Shetland Bus operated.
We were blessed with both some phenomenal weather that resulted in some sun bathing Shetland style, and a performance of part of Jenna and Bethany Reid’s Shetland Bus suite of music titled ‘Escape’. It is an absolutely brilliant bit of music and narration of the story of just one of the survivors and well worth tracking down and listening too.
After this we had a bit of an intrepid explorer moment of our own when there was no room for us on the return bus and we had to start walking back to Vidlin…. Luckily the weather brightened our spirits and some merrymaking was had on the way.
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