One of the most far-flung and least visited towns in the UK is also one of the cleanest.

Lerwick in Shetland is not just a beautiful and remote place, it’s also a very clean one. Lerwick recently earned the title of Scotland’s cleanest place, wowing judges with its litter-free streets and ship-shape public spaces. The town of 7,000 is the northernmost major settlement within the United Kingdom, sitting on the south-eastern edge of the archipelago.

I was lucky enough to visit Lerwick when the second coronavirus lockdown eased – my first holiday after a strange and stressful two years. Getting there was not easy, and still isn’t today. While it is possible to hop on one of a handful of Loganair services from Scottish airports and fly into Sumburgh Airport, the more romantic, more eco-friendly but certainly longer alternative is to ride the Northlink ferry from Aberdeen. Through the dark night we plunged, heaving up and down as the formidable swell of the North Sea battered us. Had it not been for some heavy over-the-counter and quite sedative seasick tablets, I never would’ve slept a wink.

But it wouldn’t have mattered. The town that presented itself on the horizon, as the dark of the morning cleared, looked unlike any I’ve seen in the UK. In fact, from afar, I would’ve placed Lerwick on the Norwegian or Swedish coasts if it’d come up in a game of Geoguessr.

However, as we sailed closer, the Scottish feel became clear. Inky grey homes and crooked 18th-century buildings lined up along the seafront and flagstone-paved streets.

The people of Lerwick have grown used to isolation and self-reliance. The town’s first major source of electricity went live in 1953, roughly 50 years after London. The rough, unpredictable seas mean cargo and passenger ships are often cancelled at the last minute, often for days if not weeks, during the winter. And it’s that season when you might be tempted to flee the islands.

The constant wind and year-round cold mean Shetland is officially categorised as a subpolar climate. The sun shines just 13% of the year, and when it occasionally does, it’s rarely warm. In fact, the highest temperature ever clocked in Shetland was 25.8°C in 1991 – a full 15C lower than the UK record.

In a way, it’s a terrible shame, as Shetland’s beaches are so beautiful. One morning during our trip we drove over a headland and looked down into a bay, where hundreds of seals were basking on a long sandy crescent in the weak sunshine. Had I not known it would freeze my toes off, I would’ve stripped off and plunged into the tropical-looking, bright blue waters.

As well as a lot of rain and a lot of seals, Shetland is blessed with an abundance of sheep. We visited during the spring when gamboling lambs dominated the island. Luckily, we spotted one newborn that had found its way into a deep hole on the coastline, unable to clamber back up to reach its distressed mother. Fear not, young lamb. My heroic friend Joe was on hand to climb down and liberate the sweet woolen critter. While he may have breached David Attenborough’s ‘let nature take its course’ mantra, Joe did bag several Tinder-worthy pics from the escapade.

Being located further north than Saint Petersburg and three of the four mainland Nordic capitals, and on the same latitude as Anchorage in Alaska, Lerwick’s nights in the middle of summer never become fully dark. In fact, the sun constantly threatens to appear over the horizon even in the dead of night, casting the place in a gentle twilight. Contrastingly, winters have less than six hours of complete daylight.

Which is why Shetlanders have forged traditions that are designed to vanquish the inky bleakness of the winter nights. Their most famous one is Up Helly Aa, a torchlit procession of squads of costumed participants known as guizers that culminates in the burning of an imitation Viking galley.

Such wanton destruction is (as you’d expect from such a cleanly bunch) followed by a good tidy-up. Figures released last year revealed Shetland is the cleanest place in Scotland with an almost perfect score. Keep Scotland Beautiful’s data showed Shetland had a 98.7 per cent cleanliness rate. It knocked neighbours Orkney off the top spot.

Brian Rae, operations manager at Keep Scotland Beautiful, explained: “Our team of expert auditors carry out annual local environmental quality surveys at a random selection of sites across Scotland every year to monitor issues such as litter, dog fouling, fly-tipping, flyposting and graffiti. We have worked closely with colleagues at Shetland Islands Council, and the many hundreds of volunteers who take part in Da Voar Redd Up annually, and I’d like to thank them all for their efforts to keep Scotland beautiful.”

Despite everything it has going for it, the length of the journey and bad weather mean relatively few make it to Shetland. Last year 89,000 completed the journey. While that number is up 9,000 from the post-Covid year of 2019, I’d say the charm, mystery and (of course) litter-free nature of the place warrants much more attention.