Trust is pleased with lighthouse visitor numbers

Almost 8,000 people visited the Sumburgh Head Lighthouse for its opening season.

Members of the Shetland Amenity Trust were told the revamped lighthouse and visitor centre pulled in 7,927 visitors from May to August.

In a report to trustees, James Moncreiff, general manager of the trust, said shop sales “have been extremely healthy and many operational teething problems have been resolved”.

“The general visitor repsonse has been extremley positive”, he added, saying there had been a good number of visits from schools and community groups.

Self-catering accommodation at the lighthouse had been given a four-star rating from Visit Scotland, and Mr Moncreiff said bookings over the summer into autumn had been “very healthy”.

“The challenges for next year are to bring on-stream the other accommodation available in the occassional keepers’ accommodation, develop fuller use of the education room and promote and market the Sumburgh Head experience to a wider local and visitor audience,” he said.

“Generally we are pleased with how things are going,” added Mr Moncrieff.

He said the trust would maybe look at opening the attraction for longer next year.

Meanwhile trustees were told restoration work on the foghorn/engines is complete and a test would be carried out today, this was agreed to by the RSPB, which runs the nature reserve at Sumburgh Head.