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Baltasound

Field	Value
official_name	Baltasound
label_position	left
static_image_name	Main gate for Buness, Baltasound - geograph.org.uk - 969689.jpg
static_image_caption	At the main gate of Buness, Baltasound
country	Scotland
os_grid_reference	HP620089
coordinates
post_town	SHETLAND
postcode_area	ZE
postcode_district	ZE2
dial_code	01957
constituency_westminster	Orkney and Shetland
civil_parish	Unst
unitary_scotland	Shetland
lieutenancy_scotland	Shetland
constituency_scottish_parliament	Shetland

Baltasound (or Baltasund) is the largest settlement on the island of Unst in Shetland, Scotland. It comes from the Old Norse man's name Balti (Baltisund). Unst is the most northerly inhabited island in the United Kingdom. The village lies halfway along the island's east coast on a sheltered bay called Balta Sound.

Baltasound Post Office, the most northerly in the UK

Baltasound was formerly the most important herring port in Shetland. In 1902 its catch exceeded that of the Shetland capital Lerwick. The herring trade declined rapidly after 1905 but the physical remains of the herring boom remained long after.

Baltasound was the home of the noted Victorian botanist Thomas Edmondston, who was born at Buness House where his uncle, also called Thomas, was the laird. A memorial stone erected outside the house by the elder Thomas Edmondston commemorates scientific studies undertaken there by the French physicist Jean-Baptiste Biot.

Baltasound can also lay claim to the most northerly "wood" in the British Isles, although it is not very substantial.

Amenities

| mini-width=62| mini-height=119

|mark-coord3= |mark-size3=0 |label-spacing3=2| mark-title3=Balta

|mark-coord4= | mark-size4=0 |label-spacing4=2| mark-title4=Uyea

|mark-coord5= |mark-title5=Belmont House, Shetland

|mark-coord6= |mark-title6=Baltasound

|mark-coord8= |label-pos8=left| mark-size8=0 |mark-title8=Muckle Flugga and Out Stack

|mark-coord9= |mark-title9=Haroldswick

|mark-coord10= |mark-title10=SaxaVord Spaceport

|mark-coord12= |mark-title12=Muness Castle

|mark-coord13= |mark-size13=10| mark13=Map icons by Scott de Jonge - airport.svg |mark-title13=Unst Airport

|mark-coord14= |mark-title14=Hagdale Chromate Railway

|mark-coord15= |mark-title15=Gutcher Many of Baltasound's current amenities hold the record for the most northerly in the UK:

Airport - Unst/Baltasound Airport - Airport code UNT, runway length 2099 ft., currently only used by emergency services.
Leisure centre
School - Baltasound Junior High School
Hotel - The Baltasound Hotel
Post office - Baltasound Post Office is the most northerly post office in the United Kingdom. For many years, this record was held by the post office at Haroldswick until it closed down in 1999.
The Unst Bus Shelter, known locally as "Bobby's Bus Shelter", is a famous bus shelter and bus stop near the village. It is maintained by the Shetland Islands Council. The bus stop is also the northernmost in the UK. A 2 foot 6 inch gauge railway was built from the Chromite quarries at Hagdale to Baltasound in 1907 to boost the Chromate industry on the island. Although the railway did not operate a passenger service, it helped the village economically and financially. Like other narrow gauge railways in the Shetland Islands, it did not survive.

Climate

Baltasound is home to the most northerly Met Office weather station in the United Kingdom. Similar to fellow Shetland station Lerwick, Baltasound experiences a cool oceanic climate that borders a subpolar climate (Köppen: Cfb and Cfc, respectively), with winters that are mild for the latitude, and short, cool summers. Precipitation is abundant and occurs year-round.

Baltasound holds the record for the highest temperature recorded in the Shetland Islands: 25.0 C on 2 July 1958. It also possibly holds the record for the lowest Shetland temperature: -11.9 C on 5 February 2001.

During the summer solstice, Baltasound experiences what is known as civil polar day, where the sun sets in the evening and rises the next morning, but between these times it does not get completely dark. During the winter solstice the sun also fails to reach 6° above the horizon, classified as solar twilight.

References

Hudson, Norman - ''Souvenir Postcards from Shetland'', Shetland Times, 1992
{{Historic Environment Scotland
Blackadder, Jill Slee ''Shetland (Colin Baxter Island Guides)'' (2003) Colin Baxter Photography, Strathspey {{ISBN. 1-84107-125-0
Alex Kuksin. "Baltasound Airport (Unst)".
"Baltasound Junior High School – The UK's Most Northerly School".
"Home - The Baltasound Hotel, Unst, Shetland".
(1999-11-29). "SCOTLAND | Blue day at red post office". [[BBC News]].
"Station Map". [[UKMO]].
"Northern Scotland: climate".
"February 2001".
"Average Weather For Lerwick, United Kingdom".
(2022-01-04). "Baltasound climate information". [[Met Office]].

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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