Vikings who found their longboat up a smelly creek have placenames restored

More than 1,000 years since they last terrorised Britain, the Vikings are again likely to cause a few palpitations – this time among motorists.

More than 1,000 years since they last terrorised Britain, the Vikings are again likely to cause a few palpitations – this time among motorists.

Frustrated drivers who are increasingly baffled by the burgeoning number of bilingual road signs springing up in parts of the UK will have to deal with yet another minority language telling them where to go. Following in the footsteps of the Welsh and Highland Gaels, who have successfully campaigned to get their own placenames included on road signs alongside their modern English translations, the Viking descendants of Shetland islanders now want the same.

Visitors who find themselves heading for Leir-vik, which translates as Shit-creek, without a map may be excused a few Anglo-Saxon oaths of their own as they attempt to navigate their way to the island capital of Lerwick.

The Scottish Executive is expected to give Shetland Council legal permission to celebrate their historic links by reinstating the 1,100-year-old name for their island capital, among others, on signposts on all the island's roads.

Drivers visiting the island will be greeted with two sets of placenames for each town and village, one in English and the other in the earthy descriptive prose of Norse, even though few people understand, let alone speak it today.

When Norwegian Vikings first sailed their longships up Bressay Sound in the 800s they found themselves left high and dry on the muddy, stinking foreshore. It was they who called the spot Leir-vik, which means, literally, Shit-creek, and the name stuck.

"These people tended to call a spade a spade," said the Shetland archivist Brian Smith, who researched the old Norse spellings. "I presume the tide must have been out when they first arrived, and it wasn't too pleasant a landing. They were a very down-to-earth race. All their placenames are descriptive but boring."

The bilingual road signs are expected to encourage tourism from Scandinavia, as well as preserving the traditional names, which were in danger of disappearing.

The islands were ruled by Norway until they were pledged to Scotland in 1469 by King Christian I of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden when his daughter Princess Margaret married King James III of Scotland.