For about six months of the year Eshaness Lighthouse and Shetland have more sunshine than anywhere else in Britain. June sunshine averages 154 hours. On Midsummer Day, the sun's above the horizon for almost 19 hours. The remaining hours are officially termed "civil twilight" but we Shetlanders call it the "Simmer Dim". From mid May until mid July the Simmer Dim gives the midnight hours a magical quality. On clear nights it's light enough to read by. Sunsets and sunrises are often sensational and prolonged.

The other night around 11:30 pm I took some pictures of what Simmer Dim looks like.

Sincerely,

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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.