Our History

Shetland Rural Experience Centre located in the North End of Shetland’s mainland, provides visitors with an up-close and personal look at border-collies at work, traditional Shetland sheep and Shetland ponies.

The business was founded by David, who sadly passed away in 2025. After years of success at dog trials up and down the country, even stretching as far as Belgium, David, along with Isla, and their team of dogs started Shetland Rural Experience, allowing visitors to Shetland to see the methods of training dogs to be excellent workers on farms and crofts.

Shetland-born and raised, David Murray was born in North Roe and trained sheepdogs to an exceptional standard for over 35 years. He competed across the United Kingdom, and at the time, was the only Shetland trainer to compete on the continent.

Alongside managing his croft with Isla, David worked in peat restoration here in Shetland and spent time in America and Dubai in the Oil & Gas industry.

Isla originates from Brora in the Scottish Highlands. She first came to Shetland to work in the Bird Observatory in Fair Isle as a chef.

Isla then moved to Fetlar, one of Shetland’s Northern Isles where she worked on a croft. It was here where her interest in dogs and dog training began.

Isla has also competed with dogs at national level.

The family is based in North Roe, which acts as the passageway to some beautiful walking spots that thousands visit every year. They are a hotspot for locals, tourists, and visiting birdwatchers and geologists.

One of those hotspots is Fethaland, which is rich in history.

David’s history with Fethaland is fascinating, with his Father being the last to inhabit the peninsula. Fethaland was Shetland’s working fishing station and for a long time one of the most popular from the 15th and 16th century right through until the twentieth.

It would be 1944 before David’s family would leave. The signs of life remain, though, and some stone-built huts dot the seafront.

The Fethaland area has evidence of human settlement long before then. There is evidence of Vikings, which goes as no surprise considering its location at the most northerly tip of the archipelago.

Fethaland is steeped in human history which geologists have long been fascinated by, with many different rocks dating thousands of years being on display.

In more recent times, Fethaland was the first hosting site for rockets in Shetland and one launched in the Summer of 2020.

North Roe is also the passageway for Uyea. Uyea also has some fascinating history to it. When the press gangs came to the Isles to take young men into the Navy by force, young men would, with a warning, hide in the cave at Uyea. Known as the Kettle Back Cave as this was not within sight of anywhere onshore and would be easy to navigate for locals.

Going back further than the terror of the press gangs, ships from Neolithic times would often run ashore nearby. The men would be taken from their drowned ships and buried.