Haroldswick
Haroldswick is a place on the northeast coast of the British island of Unst , the northernmost inhabited island in the Shetland archipelago . It is the northernmost village and one of the northernmost residential areas in the United Kingdom . The settlement is located at the head of the eponymous bay, Harold's Wick, about 3 km north of the main town of Baltasound and, in 1991, was the second largest settlement on Unst and had 300 inhabitants.
Infrastructure
Haroldswick is accessible via both nationally and regionally classified roads and is at the end of the A968 , the only national road on Unst that extends south via Baltasound and the island of Yell to the main island of the Shetlands on the Mainland . Next to the northwest, the A968 for regional road B9086 which is the at Haroldswick Loch of Cliff passing to the west coast of deep burrowing south Firth leads Burra Firth. In a north-northeast direction, the northernmost classified road in the United Kingdom, the approximately three kilometers long B9087, which begins in the village, runs past the mountain Saxa Vord, which was once used for military purposes and is now used for tourism - at 285 m the highest point on Unst. Higher north towards Norwick, only unclassified roads run up to Skaw, where the northernmost British road ends. There was never a rail network for passenger transport on Unst, only a narrow-gauge railway was temporarily used to transport quarry yields. The closest airport is Baltasound Airport.
Until it closed in 1999, Haroldswick was the northernmost post office in the British Isles. The local elementary school was closed in 1997. There is also a shop and a café in town. From 1957 to 2006, the largest employer of the islanders who traditionally lived from fishing was a radar system set up as an early warning station by the Royal Air Force on Saxa Vord .
Sightseeing and tourism
There are two local and regional history museums in Haroldswick. On the one hand there is the Unst Heritage Center in the old school building ; on the other hand, the neighboring and jointly operated boat and fishing museum Unst Boat Haven with a focus on boat building in the Shetlands, including the Faroe Islands and neighboring Norwegian coastal regions. After all, the Shetlands were under Norwegian rule from the 9th to the 15th century, the subsequent process of integration into the Scottish imperial administration lasted for centuries and the more distant, neighboring Faroe Islands correspond more closely to the outer living conditions and mentality than the mainland as an equally harsh island group.
Somewhat away from the coast, near the disused radar station, the Methodist Haroldswick Methodist Church, built between 1990 and 1993, is the northernmost religious building in UK. The previous church building had to be demolished due to storm damage.
Not far from Haroldswick on the southern hills Muckle Heog is Harold's Grave , a 50 by 25 foot large cairn grave , the wrongly called Resting place of the Shetlands possession acquiring first Norwegian king in the late 9th century Harald Hårfagre viewed and namesake of both the bay as well as the place became. Though the cairn may not be a royal tomb, but that of an ordinary Viking prince or prince, treasure hunters in the 19th century were able to find a pair of remarkable bronze brooches on display at the Shetland Museum in Lerwick .
Haroldswick is a small tourist center that was upgraded in 2007 with the construction of a resort on the site of the Air Force early warning station on Saxa Vord , which was abandoned the previous year . However, the slopes of the mountain, which rises 285 m above sea level, are notorious in the UK for severe storms. In 1962 the unofficial record of 285 km / h was briefly measured there, but measurements could not be continued because the measuring station had been blown away. In the winter of 1991/92 the RAF radar station suffered severe storm damage at wind speeds of presumably up to 317 km / h.
As the only significant settlement in the northern part of Unst, Haroldswick is usually the starting point for day trips to Cape Hermaness in the far north-west of the island. Since 1955, the cliff-bound moor and heathland has been a national nature reserve managed by the Scottish Natural Heritage .
The harsh climate and the barren landscape have produced a peculiar fauna and flora, from which various orchids , seabirds and other bird and seal species stand out.
Web links
- Haroldswick at Undiscovered Scotland , there are articles on the site for other Haroldswick keywords
- Haroldswick at Gazetteer for Scotland , there are articles about other Haroldswick related items on the site
Individual evidence
- ^ Gazetteer for Scotland: Classification and Statistics
- ↑ airports-worldwide.com: Baltasound Airport (Unst)
- ↑ Undiscovered Scotland: Unst Heritage Center
- ^ Gazetteer for Scotland: Unst Boat Haven
- ↑ Undiscovered Scotland: Haroldswick Methodist Church
- ↑ Gazetteer for Scotland: Harold's Grave
- ^ Samuel Hibbert: A Description of the Shetland Islands (2009), p. 403
- ^ Gazetteer for Scotland: Saxa Vord
Coordinates: 60 ° 47 ′ N , 0 ° 50 ′ W