8th June Wednesday

A lovely morning – well, it wasn’t raining.  I walked up to Skaw, which is the most northerly bit on the right hand side.  I was hoping to see the lighthouse but it is hidden behind the Saxa Vord headland.

The direct road from Norwick to Skaw doesn’t look good.  Fortunately there is an inland alternative.

My overnight parking spot

All the buildings I passed north of Norwick were ruins apart from this one, so this is the most northerly habitation.  Apart from the crofting, they were raising salmon fry (I hope that’s the right word for the little ones they then transfer into the lochs and voes.

Strange shaped rocks

View of Outer Stack which is the most northerly outcrop, north of Muckle Flugga

 

I might have seen Muckle Flugga if I had gone out to the end of the Holm of Skaw which was accessible over rocks but not knowing the state of the tide I decided it was not that important…

I then explored the Inner Skaw, another headland on the way back to Norwick.  There was a whole community on this site in WWII as this was an important RAF radar station

  Information panel re RAF Skaw

What it looks like today

Looking back at Norwick – weather not improving

As I needed some milk I went to one of the shops in Baltasound – the one nearest the Post Office and where it was easiest to park.  The shop doesn’t look inviting from the outside -

Inside it was wonderful cornucopia – at one end a self serve cafe (i.e you help yourself and then tell the one person manning the till what you had), an information centre, a library, a gift shop, booze, ciggies, food, etc.  Having gone in for a pint of milk, I spent over £20, including an Unst Tshirt…

I spent the rest of the day exploring other parts of Unst.  There are Viking long houses, broch sites, the odd standing stone – but nothing as good as what I have already seen elsewhere in Shetland and Orkney – and there is another Stewart castle (I think this is the final one!).  This one wasn’t locked and there were torches available but their batteries were almost gone so it was a bit spooky poking about in the dark.

Muness Castle

This was for Laurence Bruce, half brother to Robert Stewart and he was Earl and Bishop of Shetland

Great chunks of quartz used in the stone walls:

Kirk at Uyeasound

Uyeasound

Housing  of former petrol pump

Probably this was the shop on the pier which had  the petrol when it was there

Belmont House overlooking the ferry pier at Belmont which is a shop and a petrol pump – it has been rescued and one can use it for weddings and so on.

I decided to move back to Yell and hopped  back on the ferry.  The weather was deteriorating when I got  over to Yell and I had difficulty finding somewhere to park overnight.  In the end  I stopped on the pier at Culivoe.  The following day I went to Fetlar.

I will do Fetlar on Thursday and Yell on Friday.