Unst is about 15 miles long and is the most northerly inhabited island in the archipelago. There are about 600 residents with a couple of small communities and then greater metropolitan Baltasound!. While Baltasound is the largest community, it can probably rustle up 250 inhabitants, and is a shadow of it’s former self when the herring industry was at it’s height. At that time there were pickling, salting and smoking factories and many more people in the late 1800s. The sound is well protected by Balta island and has a small airstrip for emergency medical evacuations, but does not have the inter-island air service because of the ferries and the reliability of that service. We looked at the airstrip and I had expected a gravel runway but it is concrete with an apron and a hangar. Looks about 2500 ft long with runway lights and VASI lights for you pilot folks.
Our cottage is on Westbay and within 100 feet of the sea. Not exactly the white sands of the Caribbean.
It is about 450 square feet total with two bedrooms upstairs and a kitchen/living room and bathroom downstairs. So tiny but cozy and with a wonderful view. We had a peat fire every night. You look out over the Bluemull Sound and in the distance is the very top of Yell, one of the other islands.
In May Bluemull Sound attracts a lot of whales. Orcas and Minkies as well as killer whales. The bad news is that they are attracted there to feed on recently born the seal pups.
The road ends about 200 ft from the house and you have to navigate a kind of causeway liberally scattered with sheep deposits, as are most things around here. I just noticed on Google Earth that there is a photo of “sheep eating seaweed”. This is immediately outside the cottage we stayed at.
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