The Shetland sun is stubborn. Defiant even. In summer it barely sets, instead burning down late for a dalliance with the cobalt waters that swirl around this 100-island archipelago. You might lose sight of its rays for a while, but it won’t let the isles here at 60° north descend into darkness. A surreal, life-affirming glow lingers, the magic of the simmer dim, making Shetland the best place in the British Isles to savour midsummer. Today, the sun’s rays crept up from the horizon at 3.42am and will sink again at 10.37pm, almost 19 hours later.

Midsummer in Shetland is no ticketed theme party that is forgotten the next day – it’s a nigh-spiritual experience that breathes its life into Shetlanders and visitors alike. The days and weeks surrounding midsummer are celebrated with real joy and gratitude after the blank darkness of a winter that is only partially lifted by regular Northern Lights extravaganzas.

The simmer dim brings hope and good cheer, soars the sprit. As local artist Ruth Brownlee puts it: “Shetlanders feel most alive during midsummer and the simmer dim. In winter, people ask why I live here – they never do in summer.”

I have lots of favourite spots to appreciate the simmer dim. On Shetland’s Mainland it’s hard to see past Sumburgh Head, whose vaulting cliffs are bathed in a peachy, rosy glow in the simmer dim. It may be hard to concentrate on the light show due to the impossibly cute puffins hobbling to the cliffside burrows right by your feet. Or maybe it’s the passing minke whale; possibly a killer whale, a regular in these waters. It’s hard to find places in Shetland that don’t look they’re passively auditioning for starring in a BBC natural history documentary; at Sumburgh Head it’s impossible.

If you really want to squeeze as much light as possible out of midsummer there is only one place to head: Unst, the most northerly inhabited isle in the UK. Take a brace of local ferries – watch the road for waddling otters as you forge ever further north across Yell’s moors – and you’re up to 61° north north.

Push on to the Hermaness Nature Reserve and eke across the wooden boardwalk – bracing yourself for divebombing bonxies as you go – and you reach journey’s end. Caledonian Nirvana. It will likely be just you, the puffins and the gannets staring over Muckle Flugga, the most northerly land in these isles, ethereal in the simmer dim with the Atlantic surf ravaging the whitewashed island lighthouse.

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Unst will blow your mind and every sinew, but it’s not even my favourite place to bathe in Shetland’s simmer dim. That honour goes to the eerie isle of Mousa, just east of the Shetland Mainland.

While there are no grand Neolithic stone circles on these isles like you’ll find on Orkney, there are numerous ancient standing stones and monoliths. On Mousa there haunts the best preserved broch in Scotland, part of a mysterious chain of rugged fortresses that guard Europe’s second longest coastline. Its hulking fat chimney-like profile stands proud on this wildlife-rich uninhabited isle. Uninhabited, that is, bar for Mousa’s storm petrels.

I’ve been lucky to be blessed with sublime experiences in more than 100 countries. I cannot think of any that beat sitting in this ancient broch surrounded by ghosts waiting with the nesting young storm petrels for their parents to swoop back in from the big skies of the simmer dim, who use the lingering light to dodge predators.

As my cheeks glow and my camera phone struggles to compute the colours, I really wouldn’t want to be anywhere else in the world than Shetland, especially not in midsummer. Especially not in the simmer dim.

How to get there and around

NorthLink Ferries sail to Shetland overnight from Aberdeen, with the ferry sailing illuminated by the simmer dim and passing the Orkney Islands.

Flights to Sumburgh are operated by Loganair and Eastern Airways.

The Mousa Boat runs storm petrel boat trips.

More information

shetland.org

visitscotland.com