Unst Attractions

The Atlantic Ocean crashes against gneiss rocks near Herma Ness at the northern tip of Unst. It is home to thousands of sea birds, including puffins and the rare black-browed albatross. The great skua colony on the island is the second-largest in Great Britain. The most northerly inhabited point in Great Britain is Muckle Flugga, where a lighthouse (1858) crowns the 200ft/61m rock. Just beyond here Out Stack marks the end of the British Isles.

The 74 acre/30ha nature reserve at Keen of Hamar is a must for amateur botanists. Wind, rain and frost have left a yellowy-brown field of rubble behind. With a high metal content and scarcely any organic soil, all the plant life occurs in miniature, including the Shetland chickweed (unique to the island and discovered in 1837), Nordic mountain rock cress and Norwegian sandwort.

On the east coast of Unst stands Muness Castle, Great Britain's most northerly castle that was built for Patrick Stewart by Laurence Bruce in 1589.