On the Edge of the Earth

When talking about extreme points of Britain, Land's End and John o'Groats first come to the tourists' minds. But Land's End is the westernmost point of England, and John o'Groats is generally unremarkable from the geographical point of view. In spite of it, the places are very popular. But we're not going to visit them today... Our destination is not only the very edge of the British lands but almost the edge of the Earth (as only the North Pole is further from it). This place is called Unst Island.

Among the three Shetland Islands Unst is the smallest. To get there you should take a ferry on Mainland island which is absolutely free to pedestrians.

The pier of Unst island.

Famous shetland ponies graze near the road.








By the way, there is only one road on Unst island.

When you are travelling across other parts of Britain you can see signs indicating in what direction the North is located but here you won't see such signs as Unst is itself the very North.

Belmont turned out to be a small farm.

With no people around.

This is the northernmost hostel of Britain which costs 12 pounds per night. If you decide to spend a weekend in such a wonderful place don't forget to provide yourself with some food because the nearest shop is in Baltasound and that is quite far from here.

This pony seems to be domestic.

Local means of transport. On the Shetland Islands the distance from any point of the land to the sea is never more than 8 km.

The school where 7 pupils go to.


The road to Muness.

The passing by shepherd.

Some megalith.

Scotland... Sheep are sacred here.

At regular intervals you can see Cattle Grids on the road. Holes in the lattice are so great that sheep are not able to cross it. Even a man should cross it cautiously.

Muness Castle. In 1627 it was burned by the French pirates, then twice resold, and in 1750 finally abandoned.

Wherever you turn your head on the island, everywhere are the ponies.

Another grid...

The last picture of Muness... and continue our travelling.

This is Baltasound, the capital of the island, and its sacred garage (the center of life in Baltasound).

Except for the garage and filling, there is also a shop, cafe, ATM, toilets, cycle hire and the Internet.

Winds are too the northernmost.

The island is 12 x 5 km but somebody still manages to get into a car accident.

On halfway from the garage to Baltasound there is a bus stop. Perhaps one of the weirdest bus stops in the world.

You can sit here for hours waiting for the bus that may not come. There is even not a schedule. In fact, bus stops are no needed on the island because those buses that go on its only road pick up all the walking people.

Local residents equipped the bus stop all by themselves.


Unfortunately, nothing works here.

Another farmer. Generally, local people are surprisingly sincere, even looking very harsh with their chapped faces. 500 people live on the whole island.

The only hotel on the island. The price for a room and breakfast is 50 pounds.

The guests can use Wi-Fi for free here.

The Hermaness National Nature Reserve begins with a lunar landscape.

These are large arctic skuas. Birds prefer taking away the other animals' prey. Their world's largest colony lives here, in Hermanesse.

The locals advise to move carefully here as the birds defend their nests and can attack you

But besides the skuas there are hundreds of gannets. They are huge birds with a wingspread of up to 180 cm.

The height of the cliffs is quite impressive, about 200 m.

The water is so clean here.

And this is the fulmar petrel.




There are almost no people in the reserve but lots of sheep...

Who walk along the very edge of the Earth.

From here one can already see the Muckle Flugga Lighthouse, till 1995 - the most northerly inhabited point in Britain.

These are the remains of the hut demolished by the hurricane. Actually, Hermaness can sometimes be quite a dangerous place, especially in winter. Ten years ago, on December 31, two girls died in the fog and hurricane. There were some other deaths when people fell from the 200-meter cliffs. 

The view on the South.



Gannets are everywhere.

Outsta - the last piece of the British land. No land is further from it.

The lighthouse isn't abandoned. It works automatically as all lighthouses of Britain.

Beauty. Precipices. Clouds. And a wavy ocean.






One can often see corpses of animals there. Sorry, but there are lots of them...

An abandoned military base of Saxa Vord. The military men left the island in 2005 and its population dropped from 700 to 500 people.

Puffins.

There are so many puffins on the neighboring islands that they are eaten. Their heart is considered delicacy.

Baltasound, the capital of Unst.


The northernmost post office in Britain.





The Baltasound Springers Pub is located in the courtyard of the hotel.

Everything's very laconic inside. If you look at the calendar over the bar you will see that the birthdays of all the 500 Baltasound's residents are marked there. All of them come to celebrate their birthdays to the only pub on the island.

Some more pictures from Hermaness.

This place is called Saito. It's famous for the fact that the albatross named Albert flew here for 15 years. But as you probably know, no albatrosses should ever be in the Northern Hemisphere. 

The helicopter of the Coast Guard flies above the island several times a day .

The end of all roads.

An inhabited area.

The northernmost beach.
via leprosorium.ru