One of the most impressive communities I've met since walking round Scotland for the last 18 months

If you only stick to the road and miraculously fail to be drawn in by the breath-taking views down to coves and golden-sand beaches splashed with aqua-blue waves, or ignore signs to places with intriguing names like Gloup and Vatsetter, then maybe.

For me, it was travelling this northern isle where I found one of the most impressive communities I’ve come across since walking round Scotland for the last year and a half.

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Nestled among the vast expanse of peat bogs to the north of the island is a place called Cullivoe.

At first glance, the village might appear like a quiet island hamlet. There’s a single-track road leading through a settlement of a few houses, a primary school, a community shop, a village hall, a church and a harbour.

Just up on the hill behind it are five wind turbines, fairly modest in size compared to the towers coming out the production line today.

Despite being a symbol of controversy in many rural areas, these turbines represent the patient, progressive and forward-thinking nature of this community.

Following a public consultation in 2003, the North Yell Development Council (NYDC), the organisation behind the windfarm, investigated a community renewable energy project.

Fourteen years later, in 2017, the 4.5 MW Garth community wind farm was completed at a cost of £8.3 million.

It was a huge risk for a tiny community to borrow so much. But it’s paid off, “big time,” according to Alice Mathewson, development manager at NYDC.

And I saw proof of this.

The community takes in around £1m to cover costs. Anything on top of that they invest in what they want.

They have a marina with 28 berths: 23 permanent ones and five for visitors. Five angling boats operate out of it as well for tourism, with rooms for guests at the hall. Down at the waterfront, they have a modern facilities building with bathrooms and laundry services where they have plans for a campervan site to secure future income.

This all sits next to an industrial estate the community has developed which officials claim to be “the biggest community-owned industrial estate in Europe.” One of two of Shetland’s last remaining independent mussel farmers is based there, so the village isn’t short of moules frites.

I joined in on a free, weekly community lunch funded by the wind farm cash which some 60 to 70 people of all ages attend from the island and beyond. Everyone is welcome.

I saw one of the NYDC’s latest pride and joys which was its first community-owned residential property, which it bought this summer and saw the first tenant move in. Rural housing is dire across many communities in Scotland, but they are onto that. They fund their own bus on the island. They are on to rural transport, too.

The amount of power Garth generates is the equivalent to just one of the turbines at the 103-turbine Viking wind farm on mainland Shetland, run by Viking and SSE Renewables.

But NYDC has shown what can be done for a community with the fraction of the power coming from “the big boys.”

NYDC’s success has been looked at as a blueprint for a number of other potential projects, but they are blocked due to there being no space to connect to local grid networks. The lack of capacity is also preventing Garth from expanding.

John Swinney visited Shetland in August and was asked what his favourite part of the trip was.

He said it was visiting the NYDC, saying “they have totally turned my head because they are one of the finest examples of community endeavour that I’ve ever seen.

“They’ve developed five turbines, generating revenue and are now reinvesting that in creating a new future for the community and that is so precious.”

With elections next year, the first minister might just be trying to win over votes in the historically LibDem-voting area. But having seen this community, I wouldn’t be surprised if he genuinely meant it.

A couple of other tales showcasing Yell’s progressive community:

- Yell welcomed its first ever female Jarl last year, an important role in Shetland’s annual Up Helly Aa festival and one which has historically been given to men. Alice Jamieson, who formed a Cullivoe squad for the festival, is one of just two women across the whole archipelago to have been Jarl.

- The Yell Tunnel Action Group and the Unst Tunnel Action Group are spearheading developments to bring undersea tunnels to the northern isles to connect them to Shetland mainland. The action groups believe the investment will be critical in reversing depopulation of the islands and bring socio-economic benefits.