The White Wife

Gloup memorial

On the very top of Yell is the village Gloup and the Gloup memorial, remembering 58 fishermen who died in a summer storm in 1881.

My next stop was in the middle of Yell, I wanted to visit a broch which sounded like a nice hike along the coastline.

The start was pretty easy, I just had to follow a track and enjoyed the view.

The map said to walk across the remains of this farm, but I just couldn’t find the way, maybe it was blocked on that day or I just wasn´t looking good enough. So I turned back.

I love these little flowers I saw all over Shetland, they reminded me of little pieces of cotton.

The white wife of otterswick

I already went looking for the white lady on my first day in Yell, but couldn´t find it. But in the meantime I found a map for a hike going to the lady and that made it a bit easier, it still wasn´t easy to find places in Yell.

Somewhere down there should be the White Wife – the story of the statue is a sad one.

Da Wooden Wife, is a sad one. She is the reconstructed figurehead of the Bohus, a German sail training vessel which sank at the Ness of Queyon in 1924, with a crew of 39, many of them young cadets, and the loss of 4 lives. (Northlinkferries.co.uk)

In April 1923 the ship Bohus set sail from Goteburg to Chile, but a navigation error brought her 60 miles off course. During a storm, the skipper mistook the Out Skerries lighthouse for the Fair Isle light and the ship was dashed on the rocks. She sank within one hour.

Men from Yell tried to help and threw a line towards the ship to save the crew members. The surviving men were taken into homes in Yell but four men perished this day.

A few months later the figurehead of the Bohus came ashore, in surprisingly good condition and was erected on the shore above the wreck site as a memorial. In 1986 the statue was completely restored.