Haroldswick

Haroldswick
Haroldswick
	At Haroldswick beach, the white building is Bordanoost and the grey buildings just right of centre are the houses of Beach Road.
	Haroldswick Location within Shetland
OS grid reference	HP634121
Civil parish	Unst;
Council area	Shetland;
Lieutenancy area	Shetland;
Country	Scotland
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	SHETLAND
Postcode district	ZE2
Dialling code	01595
Police	Scotland
Fire	Scottish
Ambulance	Scottish
UK Parliament	Orkney and Shetland;
Scottish Parliament	Shetland;
	List of places UK Scotland 60°47′17″N 0°50′02″W / 60.788°N 0.834°W

Haroldswick or Harold's Wick (

Shetland Islands, Scotland, and is one of the most northerly settlements in the British Isles

.

History

The wick takes its name from the Viking

King Harald I Fairhair, and is reputed to be the first landing point for the Vikings

in the Shetland Islands. A Viking grave, attributed to Harold, has been found on the nearby Setter's Hill, overlooking the landing point.

It sits at the end of a small bay in a crescent moon shape with a hill on either side, with steep cliffs and rough waters with good mackerel fishing grounds underneath. The beach is rocky until it comes to an old ruin of a pier, then it has huge boulders blocking traveller's way. Lining the beach are little cottages with their only barrier against the winds from the sea being a small wall on the other side of the road. A small maritime museum dedicated to the traditional small boats of Shetland, the Unst Boat Haven, is located at the head of the bay and is open to visitors from May to September. The beach is frequently populated with grey seals and grey herons. The depth is shallow for about 6 metres, then deepens considerably.

Location

The bay is located some 615 km (382 mi) north of the closest mainland UK city,

Norwick-Skaw

, situated 8 km (5.0 mi) to the north.

The

Britain

.

For many years, Haroldswick Post Office was the most northerly in the UK and visitors could get a special postmark. Since the office's closure in 1999, this record is now held by the post office in Baltasound, also on Unst.^[1]

References

^ BBC News report on closure of Haroldswick Post Office

External links

This Shetland location article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

[1] BBC News report on closure of Haroldswick Post Office

[1]

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Inhabited islands	Fetlar Unst Yell
Other islands	Balta Brough Holm Gloup Holm Haaf Gruney Hascosay Huney Linga Muckle Flugga Out Stack Sound Gruney Urie Lingey Uyea
Towns and villages	Aywick Baltasound Belmont Burravoe Copister Cullivoe Gloup Gutcher Houbie Haroldswick Mid Yell Skaw Ulsta Uyeasound West Sandwick
Points of interest	Belmont House Brough Lodge Burgi Geos Daal of Lumbister Hermaness Muness Castle Old Haa Museum RAF Saxa Vord Unst Bus Shelter Valhalla Brewery

v t e Shetland
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Towns and villages	Lerwick Aith Baltasound Bigton Bixter Brae Cunningsburgh Grutness Gulberwick Gutcher Haroldswick Hillswick Levenwick Mid Yell Mossbank North Roe Ollaberry Quarff Sandwick Scalloway Symbister Toab Toft Ulsta Uyeasound Vidlin Voe Walls Weisdale Whiteness
Mainland Parishes	Delting Dunrossness Lerwick Nesting Northmavine Sandsting Tingwall Walls and Sandness
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Extreme points (N S E W)	Out Stack The Skerry, off Fair Isle Bound Skerry Waster Hoevda, Foula
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v t e Marine Protected Areas in Scotland
Historic Marine Protected Areas	HMS Campania HMS Dartmouth Drumbeg Duart Point Iona I Kinlochbervie Mingary Out Skerries
Nature Conservation MPAs	Central Fladen Clyde Sea Sill East Caithness Cliffs East of Gannet and Montrose Fields Faroe–Shetland Sponge Belt Fetlar to Haroldswick Firth of Forth Banks Complex Geikie Slide and Hebridean Slope Hatton-Rockall Basin Loch Creran Loch Sunart Loch Sunart to the Sound of Jura Loch Sween Lochs Duich, Long and Alsh Monach Isles Mousa to Boddam North-east Faroe–Shetland Channel North-east Lewis North-west Orkney Norwegian Boundary Sediment Plain Noss Head Red Rocks and Longay Papa Westray Sea of the Hebrides Shiant East Bank Small Isles Southern Trench South Arran The Barra Fan and Hebrides Terrace Seamount Turbot Bank West of Scotland West Shetland Shelf Wester Ross Rousay Sounds
Demonstration and Research MPA	Fair Isle
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History

Geography

Location

References

External links