As transport was by sea few roads were to be found anywhere in Shetland but during the Shetland Destitution years between 1846 and 1849 roads were being constructed for payment of meal. The harvest had failed considerably and people were barely getting enough to eat. By 1849 a road ran the length of Yell from Cullivoe to Burravoe. The Herra got a road about 1895. The earliest roads were tracks and gaets twisting across the countryside to find the driest route from township to township and to the shore. Goods and supplies for the Herra were landed and loaded mainly at Mid Yell and Westsandwick.
A verse penned in 1890 shows that the Herra people were extremely unhappy with having no proper road:
-Will get supplied wi a dir needs
If laws, stiff, tichtenin, grup
Should raise wir Shetland birses up,
My lamb, dey'll fin, in battle's brunt
Da Herra men gey near da front,
In Lews, dey're wolves, In Shetland, sheep
Da laws dey brak, da peace we keep
We're tald when finishin to say
“Your puir petitioners will pray,”
We canna pray, sae much da worse,
Na sir, we can dae nocht bit curse
And can you wonder when you ken
Dat since the flood, da Herra men
Has till dis day da road tax paid
And ne'er an inch o road we're had.
But for a finish, will dis dae
“Yours truly here will ever pray
Lord send McLeod wi pick and barrow
To mak a new road to da Herra,
Push on da job wi micht and main
Sae let it be Amen, amen.”
NEEPS O'GRAVELAND
A.D. 1890
The alleyways, gaets and paths are rights of way and are used by all in the Herra. Some gaets can be joined from the end of the road at the rear of the lower houses of Gremister.
An access gate and path leads from the road alongside the front dyke of Hamarlea [former school] to its front gate.
The Alleyway leads down from the main road past the front of The Kitchen and the front of Scarpoe’s Haa. Here a branch gaet leads to the beach. A path leading to the Kale Yard is named the Brigs and a gaet goes southwards from Gremister all the way to Bouster. The part of the gaet below Uphouse is called the Steepie. The part just Inside the hilldykes of Gremister was used as a cro when caaing the Hutto sheep. The hill-gaet continues to Hutto from where peats were collected then on to where it joined the track at Bouster. There used to be a foot bridge at Bouster.
A hill-gaet or cart road joins the Herra road east of Raga. Another joins the main road west of Raga and crosses the Effstigarth/Bouster road. Two peat roads lead from the hilldykes behind the houses of Effstigarth. A road was constructed where the original gaet to the Raga houses was. There are cart-roads to the east of Raga. These roads were made for ease when carting peats. The narrow cart wheels made deep ruts in the earth which had to be filled with shingle or stones.
A track has been made to Graveland from the beach and a road laid for the use of salmon farmers siting cages in Whalefirth. The road runs from the Hall to the old fishing station.
Where people had to walk between crofts or over cultivated land a narrow single file gaet would often be formed. Sometimes this was a quick route for the crofters to reach a certain rig. If a fence had to be crossed a wooden step [stile] was erected and the barbs removed from fencing to give easier access. There were such gaets between Effstigarth and Gremister. Single file paths lead through the hay fields towards the burn and towards the Effstigarth brig. There was a step at the Barren Knowe and another on the fence at the main gaet in Gremister. Another step stood at the hay field going towards the Effstigarth brig. Other steps were on the fences at Hamarsgarth and at the old fishing station.
There was a gate on the road at the hall for many years before it was replaced with a cattle grid.