Platinum Jubilee events planned around islands

A host of community events have been planned all around Shetland to mark the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee this weekend.

The most northerly celebrations in the UK will see a bonfire take place at Norwick Beach in Unst, an island whose commemoration of the Golden Jubilee back in 2002 was described as “a most lavish affair”. Valerie Johnson, the island’s postmistress at Baltasound, has decorated her branch with bunting and flags for the occasion.

Lerwick Port Authority is encouraging vessels berthed in Lerwick harbour to sound their horns or whistles at midday on Saturday.

On the West Side of the Shetland Mainland, meanwhile, the Aith RNLI is one of only seven lifeboat stations across the UK and Ireland chosen to light a beacon to mark the 70-year milestone.

Town centre organisation Living Lerwick is hosting a “Peerie Jubilee Spree” street party on Saturday with eight hours of live music, fun and games. It is also running a kids’ colouring competition and a free, magical augmented reality story trail.

Six local businesses have teamed up for a Jubilee Market at the Toll Clock Shopping Centre in Lerwick, selling crafts and exhibiting the original flag from the Queen’s royal escort fleet during her 1981 trip to Shetland.

That visit saw Queen Elizabeth officially declare Sullom Voe Oil Terminal open, while she had previously visited the islands in 1960 on the Royal Yacht Britannia accompanied by the late Prince Philip.

As Dr Ian Tait of Shetland Museum and Archives points out in a Shetland Times article, this is the third time in 20 years that there has been a royal jubilee – an occurrence that, by its nature, is generally quite rare. There were only two jubilees in the 1800s and three in the 1900s.

Images exist of a Golden Jubilee parade making its way to the Market Cross in the heart of Lerwick back in 1887 in celebration of Queen Victoria. A decade later her Diamond Jubilee co-opted another significant event, the opening of the Gilbertson Park, with an “elaborate ceremony”.

Celebrations were held for the silver jubilees of King George V in 1935 and Queen Elizabeth in 1977, the latter notably marked by Shetland Amateur Athletics Club staging a relay race from Unst all the way to Buckingham Palace.

Ten years ago Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee saw the hosting of several street parties. Three hundred people attended in Baltasound, and 150 were present at Mid Yell – while in Burra folk donned 1950s costume and school pupils in Scalloway heard a vintage broadcast from the then Princess Elizabeth.