A truly enjoyable location-themed puzzle from Gozo.
I found this to be very well clued, with some fabulous surfaces. The undefined and themed clues are a bit trickier of course, especially if you aren’t familiar with the location, but with the crossers and the tight clueing, all fair! Many thanks to Gozo.
For anyone feeling inspired, here is a great website to explore more about the islands, and includes some wonderful photography.
UP (going north) + HELL (it’s awful) + Y[ear] (starting) with [g]A[l]A (regular)
Up-Helly-Aa is a famous annual fire festival held in the Shetland Isles, to mark the end of the Yule season.
[acry]LIC NET S[tockings]< (in, <reflected)
(HQ’S CLUE)* (*about)
S (small) + CO-OP (supermarket) + OUT (dismissed)
F (loud, musical) + ALE (porter) holding IRIS (flag)
Fair Isle is the UK’s most remote inhabited island, found halfway between the Mainland and Orkney. It is known for its birdlife and the Fair Isle knitting patterns.
(LAIRS I HAVE)* (*rocky)
Rhea Silvia is the mythical mother of twins Remus and Romulus, founders of Rome.
(ELEVEN CANS)* (*recycled)
Ann Cleeves is a British mystery crime author, including that of BBC One’s ‘Shetland’.
Cryptic definition
‘D’ is the old symbol for a penny (before the introduction of the decimal system and the change to ‘p’). A shilling was 12 pence, so TEN D is less than a shilling.
JAR (glass container) + L (left) by S (son) next to HOF (courtyard, German)
Jarlshof is the best-known prehistoric archaeological site in Shetland, where one can see the evidence of over 5,000 years of human settlement across the ages.
JIMMY (Glaswegian stranger) with PERE (father, French) + Z (unknown, as in algebra)
Detective Inspector Jimmy Perez is the main character appearing in the BBC One adaptation of Ann Cleeves’s Shetland.
PAIR* (*out) by CAM (river)
(HEEL + SIT)* (*ordered)
A Sheltie is a Shetland Sheepdog.
SAY (speak) about CALLOW (actor, Sir Simon)
Scalloway is the largest settlement on the west coast of the Mainland, the largest island of Shetland.
UN (one, French) + ST (street)
Unst is the northernmost inhabited island in the Shetland Islands, one with a rich Norse history.
Double definition
Plymouth Hoe (locally, ‘The Hoe’) is a large open space on the waterfront that overlooks the Sound where the English Channel meets the harbour.
LIEN (right) outside CH (church)
[va]LLEY[s]< (from, <up)
The Isle of Yell is the second largest of the Shetland Islands. Known for its marshy moorland, roaming sheep and otters!
Double definition
N[igel’s] (first) + SERIOUS* (*awfully)
(MOUSE + VOL[e] (tailless) + L (lake))* (*disturbed)
Sullom Voe is an eight-mile-long sea inlet in the Shetland Islands.
[ap]PEA[led] (somewhat)
(I SHORTENED)* (*re-arranged)
Causing FLAP (panic) to JACK (sailor)
[s]IGNOR (Italian, topless) has AMUS[e] (to tickle, bottomless)
I’S (one’s) + SAD (unhappy); LEG* (*breaking) outside
[an]Y AN[swers]< (during, <upturn)
LINE (connection) with AL (Alabama)
ESS (chain letter) includes SHANE (Aussie cricketer Warne)
Esha Ness is a dramatic peninsula on the west coast of Northmavine, Mainland, Shetland.
LEV[els] (halved) at [Ma]Y (end of)
Cryptic definition
TO W (west) = away from the east
This was fun, Up-Helly-Aa is on the bucket list, while my daughter can still get there, but I keep putting my hand up.
I was thrown by Ann Cleeves being linked to Shetland. I’m currently reading one of her Matthew Venn books, set in north Devon, and have read other of her books set all over the country. She’s written 9 Perez books, 8 on Shetland, one in the Hebrides, 11 (13) Vera Stanhope novels, set in north-east England, 8, 6 and 4 more in other series and 2 standalone novels. No, I haven’t read them all, but I’ve read enough to not link Ann Cleeves to just Shetland.
Thank you to Gozo and Oriel.
A real case of ‘trust the wordplay. As Widderbel says, the clarity of clueing makes up for any lack of local knowledge.
Thanks both. Well, Anne of Cleves was HR VIII’s fourth wife, but yes I have seen a few eps of Shetland. So Jimmy Perez, ok, but besides him the local deets were mostly beyond me. Congrats to all who knew, or didn’t know but worked them out, as per Peter @2. Esp so for non-Brits.
Lichen is not a plant.
Hmm Andrew @4. What is life? I bet AI can’t do photosynthesis, just like we can’t.
grantinfreo @5 lichen is fascinating, an odd category to themselves formed by a symbiotic relationship between a fungus and an alga. The algae phitosynthesises, the fungi benefits. But they haven’t absorbed the alga into their cells as chloroplasts, unlike plants.
I figured out the theme as Shetland and several clues arising from that but, yes, this was tricky.
Still I enjoyed it because it was quite off beat.