Shetland Autumn 2023: Day 14 Friday 15 Sept: A morning in Unst and arriving back on mainland Shetland

This was our last day for 2023 in Unst and we wanted to make the most of the time there. We had just over half a day and had booked lunch at Victoria’s Tea Rooms and then an early afternoon ferry. We would then drive down to our campsite, south of Lerwick, a distance of about 60 miles driving. 

We decided to start at Lund, we often go there when we are in Unst but it seems I don’t usually take any photos, well none of the 4 Viking crosses. I have some on my very old iPod, but the pixel count is so low they are virtually useless. So my first task was to take some photos so I can show my friends here in Norfolk what I am talking about! Lund churchyard always seems a beautiful but desolate spot. Many of the graves are kept beautifully and the air is so pure as shown by the amazing lichen growing on many of the gravestones. (I have since bought the Field Studies Council Guides to ‘Common churchyard lichens’ and ‘Lichens of heaths and moors’ so next time we are there I  am hopeful of identifying some of them’.) Cladonia spp is as far as I got without a guide. 

The Viking  crosses - all 4 

One showing more detail

How many types of lichens are here? 

The church is a 12th century or earlier roofless  ruin, although the churchyard is still in use. The church is thought to have belonged to a nearby Viking settlement, where evidence of 3 (or 4) longhouses, 2 with side rooms has been found. The walls of the church are noted as being up to 4 1/2 feet thick, I must look more closely at this next time. There is a trail, trail 4, a 2 page guide that can be downloaded and provide a walk from Underhoull to Lund, to experience this Viking World. 

It was damp  but no wind today and when I got down onto the beach, the sun came out. 

The church and beautifully kept graveyard 

A view of the beach and seaweed on the beach 

So to find a coffee spot, today we managed to get into The Final Checkout and buy some essentials to take onto mainland with us. 

Still time, so we went to Baltasound Pier, despite numerous visits to Unst we can’t remember being here before. Baltasound has one of the piers, the other being Uyeasound, where we stay. Baltasound still occasionally has cruise ships anchoring off it and passengers being transported to land by smaller boats in a shuttle service. I have read that this was the most important Herring Port of Shetland for some time (1902 ish) more important than Lerwick. Hence it was (and might be so today) the most important settlement in Unst. I feel, I have some links with this as Gt Yarmouth, about the nearest seaside to us in Norfolk was also a herring port. I have talked to at least one fine lace knitter who used to travel down to Gt. Yarmouth as a herring girl ….that would have seemed a very long way and hard work too. 

Lunch beckoned, I had a cheese scone and soup followed by delightful cake, and we tried not to be too sad. After all, once at Cunningsburgh and the campsite  we still had well over a week of Shetland to experience and friends to meet. 

What a sunset we were presented with that evening at the campsite.

Shetland Autumn 2023: Day 13 Thursday 14 September : A day concentrating on Unst Heritage Centre

It was vey wet and windy but the temperature outside was in double figures when we woke up although we suspected that the weather had broken. We had experienced brilliant weather since we left Norfolk. The weather in Shetland had been superb, as you might have noticed from the landscape photos, and in fact it could have been summer. Some local friends had thanked us for bringing the good weather. Today felt more like ‘Wool Week’ weather and this was sad, many people would be arriving during the coming week and would need all their wool layers. It was much more windy than it had been. 

We managed to have a word with Nigel. Nigel is a crofter in the north of the island, and I owe him big time! In 2019, once we were back from Shetland I noticed a skein holder on the fb page at Unst Partnership Shop. I contacted them and paid for what I thought was this. Nigel offered to look after it until we returned in 2020. As things turned out, Covid and more Covid, we did not return until last year! Nigel dutifully brought me the wool skein holder plus half of two others. The two halves are now one, and in the ownership of a fine Shetland lace knitter and the middle one is the one that I now own. It is very special and is adjustable. (1) 

As the time went so swiftly at the Heritage  Centre yesterday, I was meeting Minnie there again this morning to look at more yarn with the digital microscope. Again I would take measurements and then do the sums later. It takes time to manipulate the markers to do the measuring and just taking one  measurement is not very scientific, so we need several. 

This morning we worked in the Staff Office. This way we could, we hoped, get more done without being interrupted. This we did. Minnie had brought some of her yarn passed down in the family and some of her own including some she spun yesterday using the Ashford e- spinner. We also looked at some ‘Museum’ yarn. Before we knew it was lunch  time! This is some of Minnie’s yarn from the espinner. 

I do not believe she had tried to use one before and this just goes to show once you have  ‘spinning  finely’ in your blood you  can manage any means of spinning! I am hoping that more of what we did will be made available later, but it is for the ladies and the Heritage Centre to decide how this is done. We did have one amazing moment…just like yesterday. We were enjoying looking at the fineness of a yarn, and admiring it when Minnie announced she thought it would be 2 ply. So more investigating and it was in fact  2 ply! What we saw when we looked at the 1 ply was very special indeed. We are both hoping that we can explore more of these very special yarns before to long. 

But I still had not got into the room with the Knitting Display. So my plan was to go and clear my head and get some fresh air  over lunch and then come back and get into that room. 

Where, other than Victoria’s Tea Room, would one have lunch, the answer for us was a no brainer - Norwick Beach! 

Then I returned to the Heritage Centre and did manage to get into the lace knitting display room. Such a fine yarn feast, lots to look at, it is the details of the items that I like to study. A selection of what took my eye follows. There was some very very fine knitwear on display. It was great to see some exceptional pieces that Hazel Laurenson had produced. 

You don’t actually need a leather knitting belt to have a try with knitting with one! I used bundles of bamboo grown in my garden when we had a go at a meeting of Norfolk and Suffolk Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers some time ago. You can use what you have! 

If you have studied Shetland Fine Lace Knitting you will have come across the Sutherland Sisters. This was like a business card, bigger than we use these days… and so much nicer! 

Different variations of the skein holder

Some very fine hand spun yarn, knitted beautifully

All the yarn in this display was fine, this is the finest or some of the finest there! 

Part of a very long sampler stole knit by Hazel Laurenson. I really like to see this personalisation. 

This will need to tide me over until our next visit. 

We managed to stop at the Unst Partnership Shop, it is open on a Thursday afternoon this time of the year and I managed to spot a great find, exceptionally lucky. 

Book from Unst  Partnership

So back to the campsite and tea and cake. I felt completely wiped out, all the thinking about fine yarn and Unst lace knitting……. So I needed to eat and cross my fingers that I was not getting a migraine as tomorrow was our last half day this year in Unst and I wanted to maximise my time. 

It was getting windy and we did think about moving the van away from the front by the sea to behind the hostel. But we convinced ourselves the wind was dropping. 

I went to sleep early but Michael did not due to the wind. Note to ourselves, if we half think we need to move the motorhome due to the wind, we should move it and then perhaps we will both sleep. 

Notes

1. Unfortunately I never finished write up the journal of visiting Shetland in 2022. At the beginning of 2023 I had problems with my eyes and had my cataracts dealt with one  after the other. All went well, but this overlapped with having more landscaping done in the garden and then the garden badly needed my attention. I never really caught up and the Shetland Journal 2022 went by the way side after a few posts, so apologies.