Shetland Islands
The Skidbladner
A full-size Viking longship, beached at Haroldswick on Unst.
Welcome
The Skidbladner is a working replica of the Gokstad ship, built in Sweden and sailed to Shetland, and she now sits at Haroldswick on Unst with a reconstructed Viking longhouse beside her.
Unst has more excavated Norse longhouses than anywhere else in the world. You can walk round the hull and get a real sense of the scale: how shallow she is, how open, and what it must have taken to cross the North Sea in her.
Before you go
- How long
- Three quarters of an hour to two hours
- Their website
- shetlandamenity.org
Where it is
Haroldswick, Shetland.
Close byThe rest of Shetland, near at hand.
Unst Heritage CentreThe story of Britain's northernmost island, and the island's information point.Under a mile1 min by road
Shetland ReelGin and whisky from Unst, the most northerly distillery in Britain.1 mile2 min by road
Saxa Vord DistilleryThe most northerly distillery in Britain, on the old RAF site at the top of Unst, where Shetland Reel gin is made.1 mile3 min by road
Keen of HamarA landscape that looks like nowhere else2 miles3 min by road
Hermaness National Nature ReserveThe northern tip of Unst, over Muckle Flugga: clifftop puffins, gannets and bonxies, an hour's walk from the car park.3 miles7 min by road
Hidden Scotland, the magazine
Scotland, in print.
Every photograph commissioned, every word written by somebody who went. Printed twice a year, made in Scotland.
Find out more
For further reading, before you go.