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Edmondston's chickweed, small white flowers among the serpentine stones of the Keen of Hamar.
Shetland Islands

Keen of Hamar

A landscape that looks like nowhere else

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Welcome

The Keen of Hamar, just beyond Baltasound on Unst, looks at first like a barren moonscape, a slope of bare, stony scree with hardly a plant on it.

It is a nature reserve because of what does grow there. The rock is serpentine, rare in Britain, and it poisons most plants; the few that have adapted to it are special.

The star is Edmondston's chickweed, a small white flower found on Unst and nowhere else in the world, and several commoner plants take strange, stunted forms on the serpentine. The reserve is protected as a Site of Special Scientific Interest and a Special Area of Conservation, and NatureScot owns and runs it. Come between mid-May and early July for the flowers, and look closely: most of them are tiny. It is signposted off the A968, with a small car park and a 200-metre walk over easy ground. The daily bus from Lerwick makes a same-day visit very rushed.

A short drive awayThe SkidbladnerA full-size Viking longship, beached at Haroldswick on Unst.2 min by roadSee itThe Skidbladner
Before you go

Open at any time and free.

Two ferries from the Mainland to Unst, then the A968 to just beyond Baltasound, where it is signposted: a small car park and a 200-metre walk.

Getting there
Toft to Ulsta in Yell, about 20 minutes; then Gutcher to Belmont on Unst, about 10.
Walk
200 metres from the car park.
Best
Mid-May to early July.
Where it is

Baltasound, Unst, ZE2 9TW.

Close byOn Unst.
  1. Unst Boat HavenA shed full of Shetland boats, and the herring years that filled Baltasound.2 miles 3 min by road
  2. Unst Heritage CentreThe story of Britain's northernmost island, and the island's information point.2 miles 3 min by road
  3. Shetland Reel, Shetland IslandsShetland ReelGin and whisky from Unst, the most northerly distillery in Britain.3 miles 4 min by road
  4. Jars of gin botanicals on a wooden shelf in the Saxa Vord Distillery.Saxa Vord DistilleryThe most northerly distillery in Britain, on the old RAF site at the top of Unst, where Shetland Reel gin is made.3 miles 5 min by road
  5. The cliffs and stacks of Hermaness above a calm blue sea.Hermaness National Nature ReserveThe northern tip of Unst, over Muckle Flugga: clifftop puffins, gannets and bonxies, an hour's walk from the car park.4 miles 9 min by road
Directions
AttractionsThe Skidbladner1.4 miles
Rocks and a sandy bay on the north coast of Unst, hills behind.AttractionsSkaw and Norwick Beaches5.8 miles
ShoppingGlansin Glass7.7 miles
Muness Castle's long wall and round tower above its stone dyke.AttractionsMuness Castle9.5 miles
A sandy cove at Breckon below green dunes, the sea deep blue beyond.AttractionsSands of Breckon15 miles
The Gloup memorial statue on its plinth above the beach at Gloup Voe.AttractionsGloup Memorial16 miles
The Daily for 17 October, from Scotland with love. A wide waterfall churns over rock ledges, autumn trees lining the gorge.

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