Baltasound

Baltasound
Coordinates	60 ° 46 ′  N , 0 ° 52 ′  W Coordinates: 60 ° 46 ′  N , 0 ° 52 ′  W
Baltasound
administration
Post town	SHETLAND
ZIP code section	ZE2
prefix	01957
Part of the country	Scotland
Lieutenancy Area	Shetland Islands
Council area	Shetland Islands
British Parliament	Orkney and Shetland
Scottish Parliament	Shetland

Baltasound is the largest town on the British island of Unst , the northernmost inhabited island in the Shetland archipelago . The settlement is scattered around the bay of the same name on the east coast of Unst.

history

St John's Church

From 1825 to 1827 a church was built with St John's Church , which is said to have offered space for 2,000 believers. The church was partially demolished in 1959 and replaced by a church of much smaller dimensions.

From 1877 the passenger steamer Earl of Zetland Baltasound ran from Lerwick via Mossbank . The ferry service to Mainland was discontinued in 1975 after a new line from Belmont to the south was opened to Gutcher on Yell . Because the crossing with the new car ferry was significantly shorter, Baltasound lost its position as a ferry port .

In the period around 1905 the place was considered one of the centers of the herring industry in northern Scotland . In the main season, up to 10,000 workers who were housed in woodsheds found employment in the fishing industry there. Of the 46 herring stations spread out along Balta Sound, some 600 of which were operating fishing boats, most were abandoned by 1939; shipbuilding ceased in 1980.

In 1973 an airfield (Baltasound Airport) was created especially for the oil industry , which was used intensively in the 1980s in particular.

Facilities and sights

Unst Bus Shelter in 2008

In addition to the airport, Baltasound has a school, a leisure center with swimming pool, shops, a hotel, a guest house, a pub and a post office. The hotel is the only one in Unst and the northernmost in the British Isles. After the post office in northern Haroldswick was closed in 1999, the place is also home to the northernmost post office in Great Britain. Valhalla Brewery , founded in 1997 , is the northernmost brewery in the United Kingdom .

The title “northernmost” and “best bus shelter in the country” bears the Unst Bus Shelter in the northeast of Baltasound. The unusually comfortably furnished bus shelter is one of the most famous sights on the Shetland Islands. Another attraction in the vicinity of the place are the rings of Tivla , which contain systems with cremation graves from the Bronze Age .

climate

Baltasound is home to the northernmost weather station of the United Kingdom's Meteorological Service, the Met Office . Baltasound has a maritime climate with rather cool summers and mild winters. Due to its extreme northern location and the local heavy cloud cover, the sun rarely shines during the winter months, so the average of a December day is around a quarter of an hour of sunshine.

Baltasound holds the weather record on the Shetland Islands for both highest and lowest temperatures: 25.0 ° C in July 1958 and −11.9 ° C in February 2011.

Baltasound
Climate diagram
J F. M. A. M. J J A. S. O N D.     136   5 1     92   6th 1     119   7th 2     74   8th 3     58   11 5     59   13 7th     61   15th 9     76   15th 9     118   13 8th     137   10 6th     143   7th 3     143   6th 2 Temperature in ° C ,  precipitation in mm Source: Baltasound 1961-90 averages. Archived from the original on March 10, 2003 ; accessed on April 18, 2012 (English).

Average monthly temperatures and rainfall for Baltasound Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Max. Temperature ( ° C ) 5.4 5.5 6.5 8.4 10.8 13.4 14.6 14.8 12.6 10.4 7.3 6.1 O 9.7 Min. Temperature (° C) 1.0 1.0 1.5 2.5 5.1 7.4 8.9 9.1 7.6 5.8 2.7 1.6 O 4.5 Precipitation ( mm ) 136 92 119 74 58 59 61 76 118 137 143 143 Σ 1,216 Hours of sunshine ( h / d ) 16.7 43.9 77.3 130.9 151.1 154.7 124.9 129.1 90.4 58.3 24.7 8.0 O 84.3 Rainy days ( d ) 22.9 17.9 20.2 15.2 11.0 11.4 12.6 13.2 18.2 20.0 21.2 23.3 Σ 207.1 Source: Baltasound 1961-90 averages. Archived from the original on March 10, 2003 ; accessed on April 18, 2012 (English).

Web links

Commons : Baltasound  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Baltasound at Undiscovered Scotland (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Undiscovered Scotland: St John's Church . Retrieved December 5, 2010
2. ↑ ^{a b c d} Undiscovered Scotland: Baltasound . Retrieved December 5, 2010
3. ↑ Airports-Worldwide: Baltasound Airport (Unst) . Retrieved December 5, 2010
4. ↑ BBC News : Blue day at red post office of November 29, 1999. Accessed December 29, 2010 (English)
5. ↑ Valhalla Brewery: history ( memento of the original from July 26, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved December 5, 2010 
6. ↑ Mark Kermode : Shetland: the film festival with plenty of latitude . In The Observer of August 29, 2010. Retrieved December 29, 2010.
7. ↑ Mail Online : Unst (The Shetland Islands) of September 27, 2002. Accessed on December 29, 2010 (English)
8. ↑ Mike Grundon: Kermode hails bus shelter cinema . In BBC News of September 4, 2009. Retrieved December 29, 2010 (English)
9. ↑ Met Office : Synoptic and climate stations, February 2012 , accessed on April 18, 2012 (English)
10. ↑ Met Office : Northern Scotland: climate ( Memento of the original from May 28, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed on April 18, 2012 
11. ↑ Met Office : February 2001 ( Memento of the original from September 20, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed on April 18, 2012