Nesting: The ideas that changed a community

On the east coast of Shetland’s Mainland, four communities – North Nesting, South Nesting, Girlsta, and Wadbister – are scattered across peatland and coastal voes.

It’s a tight-knit area of around 570 people, where folk have deep roots and where newcomers from all over the world have chosen to make their lives.

The story of Nesting and its neighbouring communities is remarkable.

At the core of Nesting's community growth is a building that was falling apart but has become a thriving hub. A 10-year plan has just been published to guide community growth over the next decade.

A welcome pack is being designed for new residents. Underneath it all, there’s a determination to make Nesting and the surrounding communities a place where families can stay, where businesses can start and grow, and where life can flourish.

“It’s an excellent place to raise a family,” says Mark Ratter, Development Officer for the Community Development Company of Nesting (CDCN). “You get people that have lived there for many generations, and people that have moved from all over the world to come into Nesting.”

Getting to this point – to feeling confident about the future – required the community to pull together and be bold.

The Aald Skül, the old school building in South Nesting, was falling into disrepair. The local authority couldn’t justify the investment needed to restore it. The Nesting Local History Group, which had been renting the space, couldn’t afford the work. It looked like the building would be lost.

Then, a public meeting was called. People came together and rallied. And in 2018, CDCN became the first community group in Shetland to acquire a property through Community Asset Transfer, for a nominal sum of £4.

“It just shows the beauty of that move,” Mark says, “from what you might argue was vacant land and vacant buildings into something that’s made a tangible difference for the local community.”

In the years since that transfer, the old school – the Aald Skül – has become unrecognisable. It is now a thriving community hub hosting the Nesting Scrapstore (a second-hand shop that’s raised approaching £200,000), a gym, a business studio for things like reflexology and beauty therapy, CDCN’s office, Polycrubs for growing vegetables, and a recreational area and bird hide out the back.

With four communities – North Nesting, South Nesting, Girlsta, and Wadbister – spread across the area, ensuring everyone feels the hub is for them requires deliberate effort.

“We’re very conscious that we are based in South Nesting, which is the highest populated area,” Mark says. “Most of the activities obviously within the community hub have been based there just because of access to the land and the population within the area. But in terms of North Nesting, Girlsta and Wadbister, what we do try is to have at least one person representing those areas on our board at any one time.”

Getting people’s feedback requires a varied approach. They do door-to-door conversations. They run surveys. They hold drop-in sessions. They have informal chats with folk who come into the Scrapstore.

“It’s allowing as many channels for feedback and opinions and comments, et cetera, as we possibly can. And then how you analyse that and learn from it is the key element.”

The Polycrubs are a good example of how engagement shapes what happens. Mark had previously worked on a community growing project. Initially, CDCN thought about a more informal shared approach. But learning from other communities that had tried both models, they settled on something different.

Now they rent out four core Polycrubs (each 6 metres by 4 metres). Each renter has exclusive use of their own space, but they can invite family members or neighbours to share it. There’s also a larger communal Polycrub where volunteers can grow their own and store equipment. This allows for more informal, ad hoc involvement.

Three years in, the scheme is working extremely well.

The Scrapstore provides affordable goods, particularly important during the cost-of-living crisis. The gym offers a local facility for physical and mental wellbeing. The Polycrubs do the same. But there’s something less tangible that runs through all of it: volunteering.

“We wouldn’t have any of what we have at the moment if it wasn’t for volunteers both from within the community and out with as well coming to help,” Mark says. “We tend to find that they value the interaction that they have with other volunteers or customers within that context. So it can be quite varied in terms of what the beneficial outcomes have been in the community.”

For Charles Gear, who volunteers with CDCN, that sense of community is personal. “I volunteer with CDCN because I want to see my community thrive,” he says. “This is my home. I was born and brought up here, and I want to help ensure it remains a great place to live for future generations.”

For volunteer Lynda Jozwik, getting involved was something of a full circle moment. She first came to South Nesting in 1994 as school secretary, before later moving to the area permanently in 2011.

“When CDCN acquired the old school and adjacent building and started a ‘Scrapstore’, I asked about volunteering to be more involved with and be part of my community,” she says. “It was a very surreal experience volunteering, and then later being a paid employee too, in a redesigned building that I had been employed in more than 20 years previously.”

She describes it as “such a fulfilling and satisfying role, seeing all the plans coming to fruition with all the hard work of a small dedicated team of hard-working volunteers alongside the directors.”

Mark isn’t originally from Nesting, but he has roots there. His great-grandfather’s old croft is at the coast, and both his sisters live there with their families. There’s an excellent primary school, a well-stocked shop, and brilliant halls run by dedicated volunteers. The community is also within reach of places like Voe and Brae for other facilities folk need.

There are areas of potential still to explore, but the foundations for a thriving future are already in place.

When Mark was asked what drew him to community development work, he talked about satisfaction. There’s genuine reward, he says, in working with people who are keen to do things for their community and then actually seeing the benefits materialise.

But he also credits something else. “A lot of community development groups just need that one idea to get them round the table. And often that’s what the pull is to get them to do other things going forward.”

For Nesting, the Aald Skül was that one idea. A building that was going to be lost became the reason people gathered. And 10 years on, those people are still there, still trying to provide the best for the community in different ways.

That’s the real success story.

Explore Nesting and the surrounding communities - check out the area guide.