Unst

There are three island names in Shetland of unknown and possibly pre-Celtic origin: Unst, Fetlar and Yell. The earliest recorded forms of these three names do carry Norse meanings: Fetlar is the plural of fetill and means "shoulder-straps", Ǫmstr is "corn-stack" and í Ála is from ál meaning "deep furrow".

However, these descriptions are hardly obvious ones as island names and are probably adaptations of a pre-Norse language.[7][8] This may have been Pictish but there is no clear evidence for this.[9][10] Taylor (1898) has suggested a derivation from the Old Norse "Ornyst" meaning "eagle's nest".[11]

Muness Castle

The Shetland Amenity Trust's "Viking Unst" project excavated and displayed part of the island's Norse heritage. Work was undertaken on three longhouses – of which 60 are known of on the island – at Hamar, Underhoull and Belmont. The replica Viking ship Skibladner can currently be seen ashore at Haroldswick.[12]

Skibladner, Unst

The remains of pre-12th-century Christian chapels survive on Unst: St Olaf's Chapel, Lund, and Our Lady's Kirk at Framgord, Sandwick on the south east coast.[13] Norse-style cross-shaped gravestones stand in the surrounding burial grounds at both Lund and Framgord, and rare "keelstone" burial markers survive at Framgord.[14][15][16] Late Norse longhouses have been identified around both bays; the house at Sandwick still retains its cow-shaped byre door.[17]

Small cross-shaped marker with a grave stone shaped like the keel of an inverted ship at the late-Norse Christian Chapel at Framgord, Sandwick.

James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell sailed to Shetland after the Battle of Carberry Hill. He was at the house of Olave Sinclair, the receiver or sheriff of Shetland on Unst, in July 1567 when his enemies arrived in three ships, and he fought a sea battle for three hours before sailing to Norway.[18][19] A later sheriff, Laurence Bruce, built Muness Castle in 1598.

The Rev Dr James Ingram (1776–1879) was minister of Unst from 1821. In the Disruption of 1843, he and most of the Unst population, left the established church and joined the Free Church of Scotland (a very typical pattern in the Highlands and Islands). He erected a new church at Uyeasound, funded by the Countess of Effingham. Ingram retired in 1875 aged 99 and died aged a remarkable 103. His father and grandfather also lived to over 100.[20]

Robert Louis Stevenson's father and uncle were the main design engineers for the lighthouse on Muckle Flugga, just off Hermaness on the north-west of the island. Stevenson visited Unst, and the island is claimed to have become the basis for the map of the fictional Treasure Island[21] – a claim shared by Fidra in East Lothian.

In the 1950s, a Canadian sociologist, Erving Goffman, undertook a year of ethnographic research on Unst for his doctoral thesis, which underpinned his best known publication, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (1956) and the dramaturgy approach he developed.[22]

On 7 January 2007, Unst was rocked by an earthquake measuring 4.9 on the Richter scale, which is believed to have been one of the most powerful earthquakes in the Norwegian Sea area in the past 10 years.[23]

The island lays claim to many "most northerly" UK titles: the tiny settlement of Skaw in the north-east of the island is the northernmost settlement in the UK; Haroldswick is the site of Britain's most northerly church; the Muckle Flugga lighthouse, just off the far north of Unst, was opened in 1858 and is the most northerly lighthouse in the UK, situated close to Out Stack, the most northerly rock in the UK.

Western Norway is 300 km away.

The islands of Unst and Fetlar are mainly formed of ultramafic and mafic igneous rocks which are interpreted to form part of an ophiolite,[24] a section of oceanic crust from the Iapetus ocean which was destroyed during the Caledonian orogeny.

Unst was once the location of several chromite quarries, one of which was served by the now-disused Hagdale Chromate Railway from 1907 to 1937.[25] Unst is the type locality for the mineral theophrastite, a nickel-magnesium variant of the mineral, (Ni,Mg)(OH)₂, having been discovered at Hagdale in 1960.[26]

The Unst Bus Shelter

Ferries link Belmont on the island to Gutcher on Yell and Oddsta on Fetlar.

The Unst Bus Shelter, also known as Bobby's Bus Shelter after a child who saved it from removal, is a bus shelter and bus stop near the village of Baltasound which is equipped with home comforts such as a television set, and is maintained by local residents.[27]

Unst is also home to the Promoting Unst Renewable Energy (PURE) Wind Hydrogen project,[28] a community-owned clean energy system based on hydrogen production. This project is part of the Unst Partnership, the community's development trust. The Pure Energy Centre was formed using the skills and knowledge gained during the PURE Project and has installed hydrogen systems in diverse locations.[29]

At the southern end of Unst, above the island's ferry terminal, stands Belmont House. Dating from 1775, Belmont has been described as "possibly the most ambitious, least-altered classical mansion in the Northern Isles".[30] It was restored between 1996 and 2010 by a charitable trust, who now operate the building as a venue for hire.[31]

The island's population was 632 as recorded by the 2011 census,[4] a drop of over 12% since 2001 when there were 720 usual residents.[32] During the same period Scottish island populations as a whole grew by 4% to 103,702.[33]

In 2016, the island was the subject of Series 11 of BBC Two's An Island Parish.[34]

The island has an airstrip, the Unst Airport, which has been decommissioned as an airport, has no regular flights and is only used for emergency flights.

Unst is important for its seabird colonies, including those at Hermaness National Nature Reserve. It is also known for its plant life, including the Norwegian sandwort and Shetland Mouse-ear, the latter unique to the island.

On the island, the commonly seen Great skua is known as the "bonxie".[34]

James Ingram by Otto Leyde

• Walter Sutherland (died c. 1850), a former inhabitant of the northernmost cottage in Britain, was reportedly the last native speaker of the Norn language.
• Thomas Barclay, born on Unst in 1792 was a Principal of the University of Glasgow.[44]
• Laurence Edmondston, born in Shetland in 1795, was a medical doctor and GP for Unst.
• John Gray (1819–1872), born on Unst, Captain of the SS Great Britain
• Thomas Edmondston, born on Unst in 1825, was a botanist.
• James Ingram (1776–1879), Presbyterian minister who spent most of his life working in the parishes of Fetlar and Unst. Ingram wrote the New Statistical Account of the parish of Unst in 1831; his father-in-law and Thomas Mouat of Garth wrote the Old Statistical Account in 1791.
• May Moar was born here in 1825 and gained an RNLI medal.
• Jessie Saxby, born on Unst in 1842, was a folklorist and writer.
• Sinclair Ferguson (born 1948), theologian and preacher, was Church of Scotland minister on Unst.[45]

• List of islands of Scotland
• Society of Our Lady of the Isles

• Anderson, Joseph (ed.) (1893) Orkneyinga Saga Translated by Jón A. Hjaltalin & Gilbert Goudie Edinburgh: James Thin and Mercat Press (1990 reprint) ISBN 0-901824-25-9
• Gammeltoft, Peder (2010) "Shetland and Orkney Island-Names – A Dynamic Group" Northern Lights, Northern Words Selected Papers from the FRLSU Conference, Kirkwall 2009, edited by Robert McColl Millar
• Haswell-Smith, Hamish (2004). The Scottish Islands. Edinburgh: Canongate. ISBN 978-1-84195-454-7.
• Orkneyinga Saga: The History of the Earls of Orkney Trans. Hermann Pálsson and Edwards, Paul (1978) London: Hogarth Press ISBN 0-7012-0431-1 Republished 1981, Harmondsworth: Penguin ISBN 0-14-044383-5
• Sandison, Charles – Unst: My Island Home and its Story Shetland Times 1968 [repr. 1975]
• Isaac Taylor (1898). Names and Their Histories: A Handbook of Historical Geography and Topographical Nomenclature. ISBN 9780559296673. Retrieved 25 May 2010.

• Media related to Unst at Wikimedia Commons
• Unst travel guide from Wikivoyage
• Official website
• Recordings of Unst Scots