Skip navigation
Weather today

17°C

Map of Sumburgh Head
Where is it?
View map
Right, let's go...
Plan a visit
Print page

Facilities

Facilities

  • Car park : Main car park and smaller parking area by the lighthouse for less mobile visitors .
  • Group bookings accepted
  • Guided walks available
  • Good for walking
  • Pushchair friendly

Viewing points

There are three viewing platforms around the reserve.

Nature trails

From the main car park, walk up to the lighthouse (about 0.3 mile/0.5 km). The path is too steep for wheelchair users who can, instead, drive to the lighthouse where there is a small parking bay and suitable viewing area at the top of the cliff. Visitors walking up to the lighthouse from the car park can view cliff nesting birds from behind any of the stone dykes along the way.

Educational facilities

Open your eyes and ears to the natural world with a visit to one of Shetland's RSPB reserves. A summer programme 'Living Classrooms' offers topics designs for children from P1-P7. Can be adapted by request to suit secondary pupils. Sumburgh Head nature reserve is a spectacular place to see nesting seabirds: fulmars on the cliff ledges, puffins perched outside their burrows and guillemots clustered on the rocks. You can visit any weekday during the summer term. Most visits to Sumburgh Head last about two hours, but please contact the reserve for more details.

Contact us

  • Tel: 01950 460800

Where is it?

  • Lat/lng: 59.85441,-1.27525
  • Grid reference: HU407079
  • Nearest town: Lerwick, Mainland, Shetland
  • County: Shetland
  • Country: Scotland

Get directions

Note: Some reserves are not served directly by public transport and, in these cases, a nearby destination (from which you may need to walk or take a taxi or ferry) may be offered.

Collections

Living classrooms