Scots name | Balta |
---|---|
Old Norse name | Baltey |
Location | |
OS grid reference | HP661081 |
Coordinates | 60°44′59″N0°47′28″W / 60.749746°N 0.791144°W |
Physical geography | |
Island group | Shetland |
Area | 80 ha (198 acres) |
Area rank | 162 [1] |
Highest elevation | 44 m (144 ft) |
Administration | |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Country | Scotland |
Council area | Shetland Islands |
Demographics | |
Population | 0 |
References | [2] [3] [4] [5] |
Balta Sound Lighthouse | |
Constructed | 1895 (first) |
Foundation | concrete base |
Construction | metal skeletal tower (current) concrete tower (first) |
Automated | 2004 |
Height | 6.5 metres (21 ft) |
Shape | quadrangular tower covered by aluminium panels with light on the top (current) cylindrical tower with balcony and lantern (first) [6] |
Markings | white tower |
Power source | solar power |
First lit | 2004 (current) |
Focal height | 17 metres (56 ft) |
Range | white: 10 nautical miles (19 km; 12 mi) red: 7 nautical miles (13 km; 8.1 mi) [7] |
Characteristic | Fl WR 10s. |
Balta (Scots : Balta; Old Norse: "Baltey" [5] ) is an uninhabited island in Shetland, Scotland.
Balta lies off the east coast of Unst and Balta Sound. It has an area of 80 hectares (200 acres).
There is a natural arch on the eastern side of the island.
Balta Island Seafare and Skaw Smolts are the most northerly fish farm and fish hatchery in Britain. [8]
Historic remains on the island include the ruins of a broch and of a Norse chapel dedicated to Saint Sunniva. There are no census records of more recent inhabitation. [3]
John MacCulloch visited Balta in May 1820 to carry out the Trigonometrical Survey for the Ordnance Survey. Balta was the northernmost station of the zenith sector. [9]
The Balta Light, at the southern tip of the island was one of the first concrete structures in Shetland. The lighthouse was designed by David Stevenson and built in 1895. It was demolished in 2003 and replaced by a small solar-powered light. [10]
Foula, located in the Shetland archipelago of Scotland, is one of the United Kingdom’s most remote permanently inhabited islands. Owned since the turn of the 20th century by the Holbourn family, the island was the location for the film The Edge of the World (1937). The liner RMS Oceanic was wrecked on the nearby Shaalds of Foula in 1914.
Yell is one of the North Isles of Shetland, Scotland. In the 2011 census it had a usually resident population of 966. It is the second largest island in Shetland after the Mainland with an area of 82 square miles (212 km2), and is the third most populous in the archipelago, after the Mainland and Whalsay.
Fetlar is one of the North Isles of Shetland, Scotland, with a usually resident population of 61 at the time of the 2011 census. Its main settlement is Houbie on the south coast, home to the Fetlar Interpretive Centre. Fetlar is the fourth-largest island of Shetland and has an area of just over 4,000 ha.
Unst is one of the North Isles of the Shetland Islands, Scotland. It is the northernmost of the inhabited British Isles and is the third-largest island in Shetland after Mainland and Yell. It has an area of 46 sq mi (120 km2).
Bressay is a populated island in the Shetland archipelago of Scotland.
Whalsay is the sixth largest of the Shetland Islands in the north of Scotland.
Muckle Roe is an island in Shetland, Scotland, in St. Magnus Bay, to the west of Mainland. It has a population of around 130 people, who mainly croft and live in the south east of the island.
Auskerry is a small island in eastern Orkney, Scotland. It lies in the North Sea south of Stronsay and has a lighthouse, completed in 1866.
Graemsay is an island in the western approaches to Scapa Flow, in the Orkney Islands of Scotland. The island has two lighthouses. Graemsay lies within the parish of Stromness.
Hascosay is a small island lying between Yell and Fetlar in the Shetland Islands, Scotland.
Uyea is an uninhabited island, lying south of Unst in Shetland, Scotland.
Papa Little is an island in St Magnus Bay, Shetland, Scotland.
Papa Stronsay is a small island in Orkney, Scotland, lying north east of Stronsay. It is 74 hectares in size, and 13 metres (43 ft) above sea level at its highest point. After being largely abandoned, the island was bought at the end of the 20th century by traditionalist Catholic monks of the Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer, who operate a monastery and farm there.
Huney is an uninhabited island due east of the island of Unst in the Shetland Islands, Scotland. The island is located approximately 1 kilometre south west of Balta and has an area of just under 0.2 square kilometres (0.08 sq mi). Huney is separated from Unst by a narrow channel called The Yei. At extremely low tides a sandy tombolo may connect Huney to Unst.
Brother Isle is a small, uninhabited island in Shetland, Scotland. It lies between the islands of Yell and Shetland Mainland. It is 40 hectares in size.
Fladda is one of the Slate Islands, off the west coast of Argyll and Bute, Scotland.
Linga is a very small uninhabited island in the Bluemull Sound, Shetland, Scotland. It is one of many islands in Shetland called Linga. It has an area of 45 ha and is 26m at its highest point.
Yell Sound is the strait running between Yell and Mainland, Shetland, Scotland. It is the boundary between the Mainland and the North Isles and it contains many small islands. Sullom Voe, on the shores of which is a substantial oil terminal, is an arm of Yell Sound.