Unst Boat Haven
A shed full of Shetland boats, and the herring years that filled Baltasound.
The Boat Haven holds a collection of handbuilt Shetland and Scandinavian boats, among them the sixareen Far Haaf, a six-oared open boat of the kind that was rowed thirty miles out to the deep-water fishing and rowed back, weather permitting.
The numbers on the wall tell the story. In 1904 seven steamers left Baltasound in a single week carrying three thousand tons of cured herring; in the summer of 1905 nearly a quarter of a million crans were landed there, worked by forty-odd stations of coopers and gutters. Stand in Baltasound today and none of it seems possible.
- How long
- Three quarters of an hour to an hour and a half
- Their website
- unstheritage.co.uk
- Telephone
- 01957 711528
At Haroldswick, near the north end of Unst.
The SkidbladnerA full-size Viking longship, beached at Haroldswick on Unst.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 miles4 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 miles6 min by road
Scotland, in print.
Every photograph commissioned, every word written by somebody who went. Printed twice a year, made in Scotland.
For further reading, before you go.