Fossil fish

Backblipped for 2nd June

Our last day began with packing and, having left luggage at the terminal, headed south. We took a quick peek at the Dalsetter Erratic, a boulder which originated in Norway and, transported and smoothed by glacial action, was deposited at Dalsetter, now incorporated in a drystone wall.

Our destination was the sedimentary rocks at Exnaboe fishbeds.

The rocks are derived from deposition by river into freshwater lakes, wave action creating ripple marks. As the water levels rose and fell seasonally layers of different composition were deposited. The mudstone contains fossil fish, between us we found a couple of good examples, our guide thoughtfully added a pound coin for scale.The nearby cliffs were generated from wind-blown sand dunes.

As we had suffered another heavy rainstorm it was decided to cut short the day's schedule and omit the Ness of Burgi and so headed back to Lerwick, formally concluding the week at the Cleekimin Broch. From there a few of us paid a visit to the Vintage and Classic Car rally at the Leisure centre before assembling for the evening ferry home.