A busy fishing harbour and small port located on the west coast of the Central Mainland of Shetland, Scalloway Harbour is the largest of the ports managed by Shetland Islands Council. The Vikings used Scalloway as a harbour, while Hanseatic merchants were also drawn here by its sheltered anchorage. By the 19th century, this was an important fishing port and, during the Second World War, Scalloway Harbour gained international significance as the base of the Shetland Bus, small craft which were ferrying resistance fighters to Nazi-occupied Norway. For many years a ferry from Scalloway served the Shetland-Orkney route to Stromness.
Today, the commercial harbour, with its deep-water berths, cargo shed, fish market and fish-processing factories, is located to the east, with a yachting marina to the west towards Port Arthur, next to the North Atlantic Fisheries College (now NAFC Marine Centre UHI). Between are slips and a small ship repair yard. The commercial harbour was established with the building of the Blacksness Pier by the entrepreneurial fish merchants Hay & Ogilvy in 1832. This pier was extended in 1896, again in 1959 and 1981. The principal quays are; the West Face Quay at 120m (393 feet) in length and 7m (23 feet) in depth, South Face Quay (120m / 393 feet and 6.5m / 21 feet deep) and the South East Quay (133m / 436 feet and 6.5m / 21 feet deep). The bunkering facility has a capacity of 500 cu. m (17,657 cu. foot) of fuel-oil. An ice factory was established in 1986 and later extended.
The port also has an important role servicing salmon farms and the oil fields which lie to the west of Shetland. Aggregate from Scord Quarry is exported from here.
