AbstractThe survey is based on field work by Flinn, on forty‐two K‐Ar age determinations by Miller, and on previously published work on Shetland. Most of the metamorphic rocks give K‐Ar ages of about 420 m.y. It is clear from petrological and stratigraphical evidence that this age is not the age of the metamorphisms and migmatizations responsible for the more obvious features of the rocks, and also that the metamorphic rocks in different areas have had different histories of development. Ages up to 515 m.y. have been found in various areas, and these may be more closely related to the main metamorphisms than the more common 420 m.y. ages. In the Mainland the 420 m.y. age may be related to a late porphyroblast metamorphism: in Unst and Fetlar it seems to be the age of Read's second metamorphism which accompanied the emplacement of nappes and the formation of orogenic sediments. About 400 m.y. ago a series of postorogenic granitic and appinitic complexes were emplaced in the southern part of Shetland. By 380 m.y. ago erosion had reached migmatitic rocks and they were being buried again beneath Old Red sediments and contemporaneous volcanics. Later still, possibly 350 m.y. ago, in Upper Devonian times, granites were emplaced in the west of Shetland cutting the Old Red rocks. Finally the Walls Boundary Fault (Great Glen Fault ?) cut one of these late gra