On a quiet evening in May 1987, Jan Bevington was sitting on a beach in the village of Hillswick, on the north-west mainland of Shetland, when she spotted something being washed helplessly up and down in the surf, a newborn common seal pup, abandoned and struggling to survive on its own. At the time, no one on the islands knew how to properly care for a stranded seal pup, so Bevington rang a seal sanctuary in Cornwall for advice and took the animal in herself. That single rescue grew into Hillswick Wildlife Sanctuary, and nearly four decades later, Bevington is still there, still taking in orphaned and injured seals washed up along one of the most remote and storm-battered coastlines in Britain. Over the years, the sanctuary has cared for thousands of seals, becoming an essential refuge for marine wildlife while also educating visitors about conservation and the challenges these animals face from storms, pollution, and changing ocean conditions.
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