Shetland

Try this word-association with your friends: Shetland.... 'Pony' will almost always be the response. Yet these windswept islands, Britain's northernmost outpost are about so much more than just miniature horses.

Few people think of Shetland as part of Britain. And that is exactly what the locals want, for these hardy independent northerners see themselves as more Scandinavian than Scottish and relish their ties with Norway. You can understand why Shetland, 340 kilometres north of  Aberdeen and 360 kilometres west of Bergen, might feel isolated from Britain.

Settled originally by Norse and Vikings, Shetland was not ruled by Scotland until the mid 15th century. Even today the austere prefabricated housing comes from Norway - breeze blocks covered with pebble-dash, a board that resembles coarse sandpaper - and the lilting accents lean steadily eastward. Even town and street names are Nordic, inlets are voes rather than firths, children's heroes are called Harald and Hakon, and names beginning with 'Mac' rarely appear in the phonebook.

Shetland - always singular, never The Shetland Islands' has a wild beauty that few can resist and many visitors find themselves drawn back year after year. Read more....

Northern Ireland

The Devils Causeway in Northern Ireland is a natural phenomenon that draws thousands of visitors annually. The Queen has visited this greener than green part of Ireland twice recently too.

The locals stress that this part of Ireland is more Irish than the Republic itself, across the border. Certainly the plummy tones of English residents are in the minority and all the icons of Irishness are all here alive and well - claddaghs (those heart and crown and hand Irish wedding rings) and shamrocks, emerald fields and broad Irish faces - and even broader smiles.

Like Australia, Ireland's strength lies in its produce and if you think that begins and ends with potatoes, pay a visit and see for yourself.

Watch out for Armagh apples in everything from apple pie to apple sauce with pork - another of Ireland's famous products. Mushrooms, more flavourful and juicy than you may have ever tasted, turn up at every meal from the stay-with-you-until midday traditional Irish breakfast, to dinner. Berries, farmhouse cheeses so good you could make a meal of them alone with just a slab of soda bread or a flapjack, black pudding, another breakfast staple, and of course potatoes, as if you could forget.

Read more....

Scilly

The Scilly Isles are not well known to the rest of the world, but they net thousands of English visitors a year, many of them returning annually. And often with their dogs. So many of them come here that the Tourist Bureau in Hugh Town, the capital, thoughtfully provides a pile of plastic bags and a piece of heavy cardboard. Fold along the pre-stamped lines and you have a 'Dog Tidy Scoop'  - and lucky Rover can run free.

The Brits are a nation of ramblers as well as dog-lovers, and every grassy headland disclosed sturdily-booted folk each with one or two labradors or corgis, beagles or bassets in tow, the dogs eagerly memorising a whole new range of Scilly scents. Along the waterfront, crisply-painted white stone B&Bs are as keen to accept the dogs as their doting owners and each inter-island ferry usually has several wagging tails on board.

The Cornish peninsula is shaped like the toe of a winkle-picker shoe sending the Scilly Isles like scraps of gravel spraying off into the Atlantic about 45 kilometres away. A ferry takes several hours but we arrived the quick way, flying there in a 32-seater helicopter over Land's End, black-cliffed and lathered with waves far below. Half an hour after takeoff we were on English land again, although my UK motoring atlas neglected to include it.

It seems that map-makers, too, overlook the Scillies.  Read more....

Guernsey

The small jet taxis down the island's runway, but I'm not looking out the window. I'm already ripping open my airport purchase of rich Guernsey fudge. It's smooth and brown, the colour of those famous cows that provided the cream to make it. Delicious!

We take off, banking over the island. Guernsey lies below us striped by greenhouses glittering in the late afternoon sun. From the small window we can see almost all of the triangular island laid out neatly below before we turn north heading for Heathrow, 40 minutes away.

Guernsey, one of several Channel Islands, is an ancient island believed to have been inhabited for 6000 years. Fought over in tug-of-wars between France and England for several centuries, today it is officially part of the UK. Even so, many residents still bear French names and speak the language, sign of their heritage and proximity to France which is closer than England.

My own great-great-grandmother had a French name and it was because of her I'd decided to visit Guernsey. Read more....

Farne Islands

They should have told me to wear a hat, I think grimly as I duck and weave, hands attempting to shield my scalp from the dive-bombing arctic terns.

The real action, though, takes place around the edges where birds hang by their claws to rocks, precariously sheltering their eggs and chicks. Motherhood is always hard work, but you sense that the responsibility of preventing your offspring staggering over the edge and tumbling into the ocean would be even more daunting than for most.

Almost 300 species have been recorded on the Farnes, and around 100,000 pairs of birds nest here each summer. As you'd expect the birds are protected and are part of ongoing research projects. In fact you get the feeling that with those needle-sharp tern beaks, humans are the ones that need more protection.

If a cartoonist was given the chance to design a new bird - surely the result would be something like a puffin!

These tiny stocky birds could have leapt off the pages of a children's book, ready-coloured. For me they made up for the discomfort of dodging probing camera lenses and stabbing beaks. Many thousands of breeding pairs nest here and the sight of their comic strip-friendly faces, bright orange beaks stuffed with tiny fish scooped from the ocean, atone for my tingling scalp. Read more....