Skaw

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Not to be confused with Skaw, Whalsay
Skaw
Shetland
Skawunst.jpg
The road to Skaw
Location
Island: Unst
Grid reference: HP657163
Location: 60°49’30"N, 0°47’28"W
Data
Post town: Shetland
Postcode: ZE2
Dialling code: 01806
Local Government
Council: Shetland
Parliamentary
constituency:
Orkney and Shetland

Skaw is a tiny settlement on Unst, the northernmost inhabited island of Shetland and consequently of the United Kingdom. Skaw, found north of Haroldswick on a peninsula in the north-east corner of the island, is the most northerly settlement in the United Kingdom.[1]

The burn of Skaw flows from the uplands to the west through the constellation of small crofts that make up Skaw, and then east into the Wick of Skaw, a bay of the North Sea. A sheltered sandy beach lines the coast of the Wick of Skaw.

During Second World War, the Royal Air Force built a Chain Home radar station at Skaw. A combined Coastal Defence U-Boat and Chain Home Low station was also built at Saxa Vord; after the war this became a ROTOR radar station. RAF Saxa Vord continued as a radar station after the end of the ROTOR programme.

The unclassified road from the B9087 to Skaw is the most northerly road in the UK road network.

Walter Sutherland, a former inhabitant of the northernmost cottage in the United Kingdom, was reportedly the last native speaker of the Norn language.

See also

Outside links

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("Wikimedia Commons" has material
about Skaw)

References

  1. "Overview of Skaw". Scottish Places. http://www.scottish-places.info/towns/townfirst35256.html. Retrieved 13 December 2014.