Silence as alien arrives on Scottish islands (9)
I believe the answer is:
shetlands
'scottish islands' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'silence as alien arrives on' is the wordplay.
'silence as' becomes 'sh' ('sh' is said to tell someone to be silent. I am not sure about the 'as' bit.).
'alien' becomes 'et' (extraterrestrial).
'arrives' becomes 'lands' (landing is a kind of arriving).
'on' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'sh'+'et'+'lands'='SHETLANDS'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for shetlands that I've seen before include "Group of islands off north Scotland" , "Archipelago of about 100 islands off the north coast of Scotland" , "Scottish islands north-east of Orkneys, noted for ponies" , "mounts?" .)