The Jarl's Squad make their way through Bigton. Click on image to enlarge.

It was a special day in the South Mainland on Friday with its first ever Up-Helly-A’ festival proving a roaring success.

Jarl David Smith had 16 men and boys in his squad but also six women and girls, including his wife Janet, and the invasion of female warriors attracted much favourable comment during the day’s grand tour of venues from Sumburgh to Lerwick.

The graceful lines of the beautifully crafted galley Skidbladnir were much admired and the squad towed its Heart of Midlothian-inspired white and maroon warship wherever it went.

Firms in Shetland are facing huge rate rises – some by as much as two-thirds – under the Scottish government’s revaluation of business property which will come into force at the beginning of next month.

Hotels, guest houses, shops and other retailers are all in line for the swingeing increases and are only now beginning to digest the potential impact on their business plans as the country emerges tentatively from recession.

Although the government has reduced the business rate for 2010/11 to 40.7p in the £ for properties with a rateable value of £35,000 or less and 41.4p in the £ for those above, the revaluation conducted by the Scottish Assessors Association  – based on annual turnover – more than makes up for the cut in many instances.

Violinist Chapman Cheng from the Anderson High School won the Senior Musician of the Year title. Click on image to enlarge.

Already Shetland’s Young Fiddler of the Year, Anderson High School pupil Chapman Cheng added the Young Musician of the Year title to an impressive list of achievements on the penultimate night of the 2010 Schools Music Festival on Wednesday.

Much to her surprise, Junior Young Musician of the Year was pianist Nicola Morrison from White­ness Primary School. She said afterwards that hearing her name being announced had come as a bit of a shock: “At first I never knew it was actually real, I went a bit woozy and stepped forward and said, ‘Oh my god!’”

The 11-year-old said she “prac­tised every day to try and get it perfect”, which has obviously paid off.

It’s been four years in the planning and expects to attract more than 500 people. This summer’s Shetland Hamefarin is set to become the event of the decade for the hundreds of visitors who are eagerly awaiting a chance to visit the land they or their forebears left.

The new Anderson High School could be built closer to the Clickimin Centre on flatter land rather than being dug into the hillside, design experts have advised Shetland Islands Council.