Scotland Road Tours - A971 in Shetland

Today's road tour takes us along the A971, one of the four roads on the Shetland Islands, the most northerly point of the United Kingdom. Like most roads on Shetland, traffic is light and roads are relatively fast and smooth, although later on the road is reduced to a single track. The road splits into two (both covered in the video), serving the communities of Walls and Sandness, with the pier at Walls allowing ferry access to the island of Foula. To the east, the road passes Tingwall Airport, and the communities of Whiteness, Haggersta and Hellister. The road also passes close to Twatt. The A971 was one of the roads included in the original numbering scheme in 1922. The road at that time began a short distance further south in Veensgarth, and terminated at Walls, with the B9076 running the route to Sandness. By 1932, the route to Sandness was included as the A971. The route omitted the first section from Veensgarth some time after 1988. Filmed June 2022