Throughout history Shetland's fickle weather has contributed to hundreds of wrecks, yet the earliest proper lighthouse was not erected until 1821 and most of the main Shetland lights date from the Crimean War when Admiralty, worried about the Russian Navy, insisted on navigational aids for the Northern Approaches. The earliest recorded wrecks were the longships Hjolp and Fifa, probably in Gulberwick, in the year 1148.

Earl Rognvald of Norway survived the disaster and the tale is told in Orkneyinga Saga. Some 400 years later the Spanish Armada ship El Gran Grifon loomed out of a gale and crashed into Fair Isle.

Other famous wrecks include the 17th century Dutch ships Carmelan and De Liefde on Out Skerries, the White Star Liner Oceanic on the Shaalds of Foula, the German barque Bohus on Yell (1934), the mail steamer St Sunniva on Mousa (1930), the Russian factory ship Pionersk at Trebister Ness (1994) and, most infamous of all, the US owned tanker Braer which stranded at Garth's Ness on January 5 1993, on a voyage from Norway to Canada.