The Old Haa sits in Burravoe, a small sheltered bay on the southeast tip of Yell, and the building itself is as much the point as what's inside it. Dating to around 1672, it is the oldest surviving structure on the island — a low, thick-walled merchant's house built to last against weather that has levelled everything less serious. The museum inside is small but genuinely good: thoughtfully assembled, honestly presented, and free of the padding that afflicts many local heritage collections.
The collection covers Yell's fishing history, the crofting way of life, and the island's significant knitting tradition — Shetland lace knitting developed here and on neighbouring islands as one of the few cash economies available to women under the old truck system. That system, in which fishermen and crofters were paid not in cash but in credit at the laird's store, kept much of Shetland in structural poverty for generations, and the museum doesn't shy away from the weight of it. There is also a good archive of photographs and a small reference library. Visit in the morning, before you head north into the moorland.