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Whiteness is a scattered croft township in the parish of Whiteness and Weisdale on the west side of the Mainland, occupying a sheltered area of improved farmland between the long inlet of Whiteness Voe to the south and the Weisdale valley to the north. The Weisdale Burn runs through one of the most sheltered and wooded valleys in Shetland; the Weisdale Mill at Kergord holds the only significant planted woodland on the Mainland, with mature sycamore, rowan and birch providing an important forage resource in a largely treeless landscape. The Tingwall Valley immediately to the east, the traditional site of the Lawting — the Norse parliamentary assembly — carries some of the best croft and farm land in Shetland between Tingwall Loch and Asta.

Heather is the dominant forage plant of Shetland, covering the vast majority of the island landscape with bell heather and ling running from mid-July through September; the heather honey of Shetland has a distinctive strong character from the pure moorland sources. White clover on improved croft land in the valley bottoms and the more fertile western Mainland parishes provides the main June-to-July summer flow. Gorse — whin — is exceptionally abundant throughout Shetland from March into June, flowering earlier than most mainland sites thanks to the Gulf Stream influence, and providing critical early pollen and nectar for spring colony build-up. Sycamore in the sheltered town gardens and policies of Lerwick and Scalloway gives a productive May flow where trees are established. Bramble on disturbed ground and croft edges from July to August. Dandelion on roadsides and improved grassland in April and May provides early pollen. Ivy on older stone buildings in the more sheltered settings around Lerwick closes the season into October on mild years.