Old Unst Church And Churchyard With Memorial Enclosures, Baliasta, Unst

Heritage listing

Category C Date Added 18/10/1977 Local Authority Shetland Islands Planning Authority Shetland Islands Parish Unst NGR HP 60256 09582 Coordinates 460256, 1209582 — 1764. 6 x 1-bay near-symmetrical traditional hall church. Harl-pointed rubble walls with sandstone ashlar dressings and margins, chamfered at arrises. E GABLE: symmetrical; round-arched doorway centred at ground with round-arched window centred in gablehead above. S ELEVATION: near-symmetrical; windows below wallhead flanking centre; doorway in penultimate bay to left, window in penultimate bay to right; window in bay to outer left, and at eaves in bay to outer right. W GABLE: matching E gable. N ELEVATION: window margins surviving in full-height opening to right of centre, closed by cast-iron railings with fleur-de-lys finials. Low rubble-infilled doorway to outer left. INTERIOR: joist-holes of U-plan gallery (now gone) along N wall and to outer left and right of S wall. Series of memorial enclosures comprising droved ashlar dwarf walls surmounted by cast-iron railings with fleur-de-lys finials. KIRKYARD: random rubble wall enclosing kirkyard; stone stile to N of kirk; modern timber gate to W, square cement-rendered gatepiers with pyramidal caps and 2-leaf timber gates to E. Series of rubble-walled enclosures to NE. Late 19th century memorials to S comprising concrete dwarf walls surmounted by decorative cast-iron brattishing. — Scheduled Monument. This church was built for the combined parishes of Unst. Its missing gable peak was reputedly demolished by a lightning strike in the 1920s.

From Historic Environment Scotland under OGL v3.