Shetland with Laurie – Aboard The Noss Boat

Shetland with Laurie

This week, we had the pleasure of Laurie Goodlad, Shetland’s very own independent Scottish travel writer, tour guide, itinerary planner and destination specialist as a guest onboard The Noss Boat. It was wonderful to share our top wildlife and photography boat tour attraction experience with Laurie first-hand. We have enjoyed watching Laurie’s business grow of the years and really enjoy her insightful, knowledgeable online content, writing style, and professional approach within the tourism industry here on the Isles.  To see Laurie’s reel of our tour please check out instagram here: Shetland With Laurie  – Noss Boat Tour Reel April 2024

Laurie summarised our tour on Instagram as follows:

✨ Birds, birds and more birds! Phil told us so much about the birds we saw, from fulmars to skuas, long-tailed ducks to eiders, oystercatchers, ravens and more… the highlight were the gannets and auks (we spotted razorbills, black guillemots and guillemots) that nest on the towering cliffs of Noss.

✨We entered the Orkneyman’s Cave, a place reputed to be where men hid from the Press Gang.

✨ We passed through the Giant’s Leg – an impressive natural sandstone arch

✨ Once at the bird colony we witnessed an incredible “feeding frenzy”, with gannets diving like torpedoes into the glistening sea. We saw skuas bully other seabirds for food. We spied shags and kittiwakes nesting in hidden crags and the babbling guillemots claiming their spot on the ledges.

✨On the way back we were lucky enough to see some curious seals in the harbour (ps – they’re massive!)

This was an incredible trip, and it’s impossible not to feel totally in awe of the natural world, its beauty, and challenges- all set against the beautiful evening light of Shetland’s spring 🫶🏻

I came away with a full heart, a camera roll filled with beauty, and a face full of gannet poo!

🎦 Laurie filmed the whole trip for her Patrons over on Patreon (coming soon)……..

 

Shetland With Laurie

Started in 2018 after Laurie grew tired of the drag of her day job and being ground down by the corporate workplace.

Driven by a passion for the islands she call’s home, an underlying faith in herself and the wider universe, and under the whispering veil of warnings from well-meaning family members of ‘don’t do it, it won’t work’, Laurie stepped off the merry-go-round of employment and spread her wings into the unknown.

With little more than a fledgling blog of musings – some pretty bad in those early days – and unwavering faith that it was the right thing to do, Shetland with Laurie was born. From the tiny seed of an idea and a passion for words, her blog grew …

Five years later, Laurie say’s she is: “I’m proud of what I’ve achieved and how my business has evolved from a deeply buried blog on the final pages of Google’s search to an authoritative voice within the Scottish travel industry. I have written and contributed to big hitters in the industry, such as Lonely Planet, and featured on travel shows, blogs and tourism campaigns. My fledgling seedling has grown into a business and blog that I’m immensely proud of today”.

 

 

TOURS & ITINERARY PLANNING

“PLANNING A HOLIDAY IS HARD. THAT’S WHY I’M HERE, TO REMOVE THE PRESSURE OFF PLANNING AND TO TAKE THE STRESS AWAY FROM PLANNING THAT PERFECT TRIP.”

With extensive experience planning itineraries in Shetland and Orkney, let me take the reigns and give you the trip of a lifetime.

Whether you’re travelling solo, as a family or a larger group, I can put together a travel itinerary to suit your needs. Or perhaps you’re travelling with a motorhome or tent but can’t figure out ferries, campsites and routes. Let me do that for you while you sit back and dream of the north!”

LAURIE’S PATREON PLATFORM

“Patreon is a membership platform that gives patrons – that’s you, I hope – exclusive access to otherwise unpublished material. For creators, Patreon is a way to get paid for the things that we create. Patrons pay a few pounds a month and benefit from exclusive content, while creators can earn a little to create that content. Patreon is a way to join your favourite creator’s community and pay them for making the stuff you love.”

LAURIE’S BLOG & PODCASTS

Scottish travel blog from an Islander’s perspective & wonderful Island themed podcasts with interviews with Island folk across a range of vocations and interests.

GUIDEBOOK

Laurie has a new Guidebook coming out VERY SOON in 2024 – keep tuned via her online platforms for the latest developments and release dates we can’t wait to see it in print and are sure it’ll be a big success…….

“After years of meticulous planning, research, and exploration, Laurie and I are thrilled to announce the forthcoming release of our comprehensive guide to the Shetland Islands. An exciting new guidebook, celebrating Shetland’s beauty and rich cultural heritage. Created by the travel writer and Shetlander Laurie Goodlad and the Shetland publisher Misa Hay, two passionate advocates for the islands’ unique charm, this guidebook is an invitation to experience the soul of Shetland, the most northerly islands in the UK.”

“With stunning colour photographs and more than 250 pages, Shetland: Your Essential Guide is a labour of love, born from a shared dedication to showcasing the islands’ natural beauty, intriguing history, and vibrant community life. Our guidebook is more than just a collection of places to visit: it’s a love letter to Shetland, a thank-you for its breathtaking landscapes, rich heritage, and the adventures it offers.”.

Misa Hay – Shetland Wool Adventures

Best Day’s with Shetland Birds

Best Days with Shetland’s Birds

£17.99       PAPERBACK EDITION

£26.99      HARDBACK EDITION

Spanning decades as well as the seasons, thirty well known figures of the local bird scene share what Shetland’s birds mean to them and recount their best days.

Edited by Andrew Harrop and Rebecca Nason

“I love the format of this book because it shares those moments of passion and excitement. This is no dry examination of facts or statistics. It helps us to understand the joy to be found in the natural world. These are the stories told and retold, while sheltering inside during westerly gales and horizontal rain. They’re much more interesting than bird name scrabble!

Fair Isle, and later the rest of Shetland, taught me that nature is an intrinsic part of landscape. To fall in love with a place, without an understanding of the wildlife inhabiting or visiting it, is a limited kind of affection. The accounts of very special birding days give us a real and wider sense of these beautiful islands.”   Ann Cleeves

134 pages        240 x 165m.      High Quality Colour Photographic illustrations & Artwork

We have been delighted with the response to our new book which was launched this Spring. There reviews & sales have been excellent & we are thrilled to have accomplished such a Shetland birding community orientated publication giving special, personal insights into birding experiences whilst living on the Isles over the years, from delighting in common birds to the rarer, there is something for everyone in this bird lovers collection…….

Thank you to co-editor Andrew Harrop for inviting me to work with him on this, and to The Shetland Times for publishing it. Thanks also to our friend Ann Cleeves for her foreword & both Howard Towll & Paul Bloomer for their art work contributions……just beautiful! We are delighted to see SHETLAND SEABIRD TOURS – THE NOSS BOAT mentioned in several accounts as well as being illustrated within, and a super account by co-owner, ornithologist & skipper Phil Harris. Both of us love being part of the Shetland birding community and this was a fun, unique way of engaging both with many contributing Shetland birding friends and promoting our birding tales and experiences to a wider audience outside of Shetland.

https://britishbirds.co.uk/content/best-days-shetland’s-birds

Here is an extract from the latest British Birds journal with a thorough review by Andy Stoddart:

“Working with a large number of contributors can be like herding cats but the editors have done a splendid job of regularising the English and producing an internally consistent set of texts. Editorial comments follow some of the accounts to add additional content and/or useful context. The editors seem to have successfully navigated the mires of birdwatching politics and produced something with a genuine community feel. Indeed, there is a very welcome effort to ensure a diversity of contributions and perspectives, such as those of the recently founded Shetland LadyBirders.

The layout is pleasing, with some fine photographs and artwork, mostly by the contributors themselves, and there are some truly iconic images, from a 1967 Dennis Coutts’ Fetlar Snowy Owl Bubo scandiacus to Rebecca Nason’s 2004 Fair Isle Rufous-tailed Robin Larvivora sibilans. The cover is a delightful and playful print by Howard Towll of auks hanging in the wind below Sumburgh lighthouse (and did I notice a Brünnich’s Guillemot Uria lomvia hiding in plain sight?).

We are a storytelling species, and birdwatchers are no different. This book is a wonderful celebration of place and a contribution to our collective folklore. It is a highly recommended companion for a dark winter’s evening:

Andy Stoddart

We have a super little review in the July Issue of BIRDWATCH magazine too…..

 

Thanks also to Shetland-based blogger Laurie & Blackpool birder Stephen for their personal reviews on their blogs………

https://www.shetlandwithlaurie.com/the-blog/book-reviews-best-days-with-shetlands-birds-and-shetland-puffin#/

 

https://natural-selection.uk/2022/06/13/review-best-days-with-shetlands-birds/

 

You can purchase our book from the Shetland Times who published it & were a pleasure to work with.  Hardback and paperback available here via the link:

https://shop.shetlandtimes.co.uk/products/best-days-with-shetlands-birds-1