Seasons · 2 September 2026 · 4 minute read
The light in June
Nearly nineteen hours of daylight in Lerwick at midsummer, and how to plan for it.
At the summer solstice the sun is up in Lerwick for close to nineteen hours. In Stornoway, a little over eighteen. In Edinburgh, about seventeen and a half. These are computed, not quoted: the Light calendar works them out from the latitude.
The numbers undersell it. In between sunset and sunrise there is no real dark in the far north in June, only a long blue dusk that the Shetlanders call the simmer dim.
What it changes
Days are long enough for two days. A morning on the Harris beaches and an evening at Calanais, three hours’ drive apart, without hurrying. A boat to Noss after dinner. A walk at eleven at night that feels like six in the evening.
What it costs
Sleep, if you let it. Bring an eye mask. Island bedrooms rarely have blackout blinds, and the birds start early.
Where to be
Shetland and Orkney for the longest light and the seabirds. The Outer Hebrides for the light on the machair, which begins to flower in Juneverify. Anywhere on the west coast for the sunsets, which happen after ten.
