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.