Sumburgh Head Lighthouse

Built in 1821 by Robert Stevenson — grandfather of Robert Louis Stevenson — Sumburgh Head was the first lighthouse in Shetland. The white tower stands on the very tip of the South Mainland above a 100-metre cliff alive in summer with puffins, fulmars, kittiwakes and guillemots. Stevenson's design used Aberdeen granite hauled by sea and a fixed catoptric light. The light became automatic in 1991; the keepers' cottages now house a visitor centre with one of the best seabird viewpoints in Britain.