The Althing at Lawting Holm

On a tiny grass islet in the Loch of Tingwall — once joined to the shore by a stone causeway — the Norse parliament of Shetland sat for several centuries. The lawmen and freemen rowed or walked across to hear cases and make law: one of the oldest open-air democratic assemblies in Britain. The althing was still meeting here when Shetland was pledged to Scotland in 1469, and only quietly faded out after 1611 when Scots law replaced Norse custom. The Law Rock and the holm are still there.