About Shetland Geotours

Your guide, Allen Fraser, introduces you to Shetland Geotours...

Your Guide, Allen Fraser

Dear visitor,

Shetland Geotours has been set up to provide visitors to Shetland with a deeper appreciation and a more exciting perspective on the landscapes they see and the places they will visit.

The scenery of Shetland is generally seen only as a backdrop to its rich and well-known natural and historical landscapes. Yet the scenery is not only stunning but is full of interest in its own right and undoubtedly deserves much wider attention. Where else in such a small area of Britain or even north-west Europe can be found such diverse geology? Shetland has fragments of deep ocean crust, some of the oldest rocks in Britain, a cross section through a volcano, not to mention desert sandstones, fossil fish and prehistoric mines. The rock pile has been sculpted by glaciers, flowing in the largest independent ice cap in Ice Age Britain, and, most recently and dramatically, by the sea. The wave environment off Shetland is ferocious, with winter storm wave heights exceeding 20 metres, and the battering of waves has produced what is surely one of the classic coastlines of the world.

For the last 10 years or so I have been leading field excursions in Shetland for the Open University Geological Society, the Geologists' Association and the Shetland Field Studies Group. Up to now leading these excursions has just been my hobby but now I have turned this hobby into an opportunity for all to utilise my knowledge of Shetland and my experience in organising and leading field excursions and walks.

I hope you will be able to join me on a tour so that I can share my enthusiasm for Shetland and its many aspects with you.

Best wishes,

Allen Fraser