Just south of Veensgarth village, near a parking area at the northern end of the Loch of Tingwall, is the little tongue of land that was the site of Law Ting Holm, where Shetland’s annual Norse parliament, the althing, was held in the 13th century. Criminals being tried here could gain amnesty if they managed to run through the crowd of spectators and touch nearby St Magnus Kirk without being caught.
Tingwall Church, on the same site, is more recent than St Magnus, but there’s a burial vault from the original medieval kirk in the kirkyard, full of carved graveslabs.
