The tale is given in Promote Shetland's folklore piece and in a series by Shetland With Laurie. A giant lived in the North Mainland beside Petta Water with trows who pestered him. He thought of gathering them into a kishie, a straw basket, to carry them off, but the bottom of the basket gave out and the trows scattered. In frustration he threw a large erratic boulder, which now stands by the roadside near Voe. He eventually left for Norway, and left his footprint in the form of Petta Water and a hollow in the hill called Kneefell, where he stooped and landed his knee.
These modern retellings do not name an old source. Spence uses the name Pettawater for a haunt of trows in Nesting, and the lake is called Petta Water on maps. I have kept the story as a traditional legend with a modern telling, and with the weaker confidence.
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