Scotland/Scots > Black's picturesque tourist of Scotland

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THE SHETLAKD ISLANDS.
A few miles to the west of Lerwick are the ruins of Scalloway Castle, a
square building, three storeys high, with a round turret on the upper portion
of each angle. It is entered by a small doorway, surmounted by a scarcely
legible Latin inscription.* The building itself, however, is now little
riTFUX. HEAD
better than a mere shell, having been despoiled of much of its original
beauty when its principal freestones were forced out to supply jambs and
lintels to the mansion house of Sand in 1754. It was erected in 1600, by
Patrick, Earl of Orkney, a nobleman of infamous memory on account of
his cruel oppression of the Shetland Udallers. On the mainland there
are good roads in all directions, and nearly a dozen gigs are kept for the
use of travellers. The most interesting of these roads is carried down
the long narrow promontory which terminates, as is well known to the
mariners who navigate the stormy seas which surround the Thule of the
ancients, in a cliff of immense height, entitled Sumburgh Head, which
presents its bare scalp and naked sides to the weight of a tremendous
surge, forming the extreme point of the isle to the south-east. This
lofty promontory is constantly exposed to the current of a strong and
furious tide, which, setting in betwixt the Orkney and Zetland Islands,
and running with force only inferior to that of the Pentiand Firth, takes
its name from the headland, and is called the Roost of Sumburgh ; roost
being the phrase assigned in these isles to currents of this description.
* This inscription is said to have been furnished by the clergyman of North-
Mavine, probably in bitterness of soul, though the Earl saw not, or aifected not to
see, the spiritual satire which it poured upon a tyrant who had endeavoured to estab¬
lish his kingdom in this world by ruling the people with a rod of iron, and holding
then! under worse than Egyptian bondage. It ran as follows
Patricics Stkwardcs, Orcadise et Zetlandise Comes, I. V. It. S. Cujus fundamen
saxum est, Dom. ilia nianebit, Labilis e contra, si sit arena perit. A. D. 1600.