Lerwick is a town and a port in the far north of Britain. It is the capital of the Shetland Islands, which belong to Scotland even though they sit a long way out in the sea toward Norway. The town stands on the biggest island, which people there simply call Mainland. Fishing boats have used this harbour for a very long time, and Lerwick is still a centre of the fishing industry; oil work in the North Sea later brought more jobs as well. It is not a big city. For Shetland, though, it is the centre: the shops, the council, the main harbour. The name is Norse. It comes from Norn Larvik, from Old Norse Leirvík, from leir (clay) and vík (bay), so the old meaning is a clay bay. You will meet this word on maps, in travel writing, and in news about Shetland, not as an everyday English word for something else.