A couple of miles north of Billister, the crofting township of Laxo lies on either side of the Laxo Burn, a famous beat for sea trout. From Laxo the roll on/rolloff ferry sails for Whalsay. In strong south easterly winds the ferry berths at the village of Vidlin, terminal for the Out Skerries ferry.

Vidlin lies on Vidlin Voe, a sheltered inlet with a marina for local boats at its head. This settlement has an Iron Age broch buried beside the present Methodist kirk. In the days before roads, when most cargo and passengers travelled by sea, the headland of Lunna was at the centre of Shetland commerce.

Vessels sailing to Lerwick from the North Isles and the Westside would call at the natural harbour of West Lunna Voe, overlooked by Lunna House, the 17th century mansion of the Hunter family. Nearby is a watchtower built by the lairds to spy on tenants fishing offshore and also to watch out for the Customs. The Hunters, like most Shetland landowners, were smugglers.

The present church is the oldest still used in Shetland, built in 1753 on the site of an earlier Mausoleum. Two inscribed slabs from the Hunters of Lunna's Tomb were built into the porch of the church.

Lunna is famous as a secret wartime base for the little fishing boats which smuggled spies, saboteurs, radios, ammunition and explosives into Nazi occupied Norway and brought back refugees from the Gestapo. The story of these heroic and terrifying voyages, in midwinter darkness, storms and often under enemy fire, is told in 'The Shetland Bus' by David Howarth, the British naval officer who ran the operation from Lunna House.

North of Lunna lies wild and wonderful walking country Lunna Ness, studded with the ruins of croft houses front the Clearances in the 19th century. The area teems with wildlife: in summer there is a constant stream of seabirds passing the headland while migrant birds alight here in spring and autumn. A thriving but elusive otter population has made part of Lunna Ness a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).