After we bought Eshaness Lighthouse one of the most difficult decisions we had to make was which flag we were going to fly on the two flagpoles behind the keepers accommodations. In the days of the keepers there was only one flagpole and they flew the Northern Lighthouse Board flag. The people who owned the property before us flew the Union Jack as they had both been in the British army. The one thing we knew for sure we did not want to fly the United States flag. It just did not seem appropriate under the circumstances to fly a US flag at a historic UK building.

That left us with two choices either the flag of Shetland with a cross on a light blue field or the Scottish Solitaire with its brighter blue with a large white X on it. Since we had two flagpoles we would fly both. We checked flag protocol. The country should be flown higher than the region, which meant the Scottish flag would go on the large flagpole and the Shetland flag on the smaller one.

Except most Shetlanders do not consider themselves as a part of Scotland. The distance from the Scottish mainland and their ancestral ties to Scandinavian makes the islanders have a closer tie to Scandinavia. They are Norse as are most of the place names in Shetland.

Our goal had been to own a Scottish Lighthouse. For us that is what Eshaness was. We would fly a big beautiful Scottish flag and be proud of it. After we started flying the Solitaire on the big pole and the Shetland flag on the small pole locals were constantly asking us either what the big flag was or why the Shetland flag was not on the big flagpole.

I think most everyone except the Shetland tourist board came to accept our choice. The Tourist Board every year when we came in to buy our Shetland flag (flags only last one year at Eshaness because of the winds) tried to get us to put the Shetland flag on the big flagpole.

My belief is now that the Shetland Amenity Trust is taking care of the building the Tourist board will finally get their wish and the Shetland flag will go on the big pole. But, it is still a Scottish lighthouse.

Happy Reading,

I love to hear from you so contact me by Email at sharma@sharmakrauskopf.com

You can find more articles in the archive under Island Miniatures/Lighthouse Letters.

I have three books which are directly related to this column. The Last Lighthouse tells how we bought our lighthouse, the day by day journal of a year at Eshaness entitled A Year in the Lighthouse and in Scottish Lighthouses our lighthouse is featured in the 31 lighthouses presented. You can find out more about these books and others I have written at my official author web site.