Events
Shetland Museum and Archives are proud to offer a range of events for adults, children and families, covering a variety of themes throughout the year. Our own events are detailed below, or see the 'What's On' Calendar for all public events and exhibition listings for the building.
Visit our Box Office to view event listings at our heritage sites
Shetland Museum Socials - drop-in
Learning Room, Shetland Museum & Archives
Come along to our informal Shetland Museum Socials running fortnightly on Wednesday afternoons from 2pm - 3.30pm. Each session will have a heritage theme as the focus. Enjoy a cuppa, have a chat and learn something new!
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Museum Highlights Tour
Shetland Museum & Archives
Make the most of your visit with us and join us on a tour to ensure you see the highlights of our museum and our Recognised Collections.
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Makkins at the Museum: Drop In
Hay's Dock Cafe Area, Shetland Museum
Join us for 'Makkins at the Shetland Museum', a relaxed and friendly gathering for anyone who enjoys knitting, crochet, spinning, sewing, or other traditional crafts. Take your current project and come along to sit, chat and make together!
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Folklore Family Fun Day
10:00am - 2:00pm
Shetland Museum & Archives
Join us for our October Holiday special Shetland Folklore Family Fun Day! Find hands-on activities and creative fun inspired by Shetland's rich folklore traditions. Learn about the mischievous trows, explore tales of giants discover the stories that have been passed down through generations.
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Fifty years of the Archives: A talk by Shetland archivist, Brian Smith
7:00pm - 8:00pm
Shetland Museum and Archives
In the 1970s, following the reform of local government in Scotland, several Councils founded Archives offices. Shetland Islands Council was one of them, in May 1976. Over the past fifty years, Shetland’s records have been assembled from all sorts of places and have been housed at four different addresses in Lerwick. In this talk, Brian Smith, Shetland’s first archivist, tells the story of Shetland’s record collections: how they were gathered, preserved, made accessible, and how they have been used by historians and other researchers over the years.
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Hands on Heritage 'Vikings' - Drop In
1:30pm - 4:30pm
Hay's Dock
Discover Shetland’s Viking past through our interactive Viking Discovery Box. Handle objects including soapstone pot fragments, a comb, and an axe. Learn about the everyday lives of Viking settlers in Shetland, explore the materials and tools they used, and find out what we can learn from the objects they left behind. Have a go at spinning yarn using spindle whorls and experience one of the essential skills that helped Viking communities create clothing and textiles.
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Thatching Traditions: Skills, Stories and the Future
2:00pm - 4:00pm
Shetland Museum and Archives
Following a week of practical skills sharing led by visiting expert thatcher and stonemason Brian Wilson, this talk explores the past and future of traditional thatching.
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Tales, Traditions and the Unexplained
6:30pm - 9:00pm
Shetland Museum and Archives
Join us for a special evening of folklore, superstition and storytelling... Discover the stories, voices and mysteries preserved within Shetland Museum and Archives through archive displays, themed gallery tours, live performance and a special talk from our Archives team exploring the lives and legacies of two renowned Shetland storytellers. Visitors can also view intriguing records from our collections, including messages from the beyond, witch trial transcripts and tales from Shetland folklore, alongside unusual artefacts rarely put on display.
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