a day ago
The traditional Scottish island about to enter the space race
Prepare for lift-off. An unlikely countdown is under way on a traditional Scottish island of crofters and curlews about to enter the space race. If the first bolt out of the blue for Britain's northernmost inhabited island, Unst in Shetland, came with the eighth-century arrival of the Vikings, the next will be a rocket blasting off from the SaxaVord spaceport. Recent approval from the Civil Aviation Authority has cleared the way for launches – possibly before the end of 2025.
The spaceport occupies an RAF radar station decommissioned in 2006. Entrepreneurs Richard and Debbie Strang purchased it, initially with plans for a resort complex, before their vision changed to a spaceport around a decade later. SaxaVord will be Western Europe's first spaceport capable of vertical launches to send smaller communication satellite payloads into polar low Earth and sun-synchronous orbits. An agreement exists with German manufacturer Rocket Factory Augsburg for 10 launches per year, while a new hotel is planned that could cater for space tourists.
Unst's extreme remoteness makes for an ideal launch site. At 60°N, its 632 inhabitants live closer to the Arctic Circle than Manchester while the nearest seaport is 200 miles away in Norway, with which Unst shares a strong Norse heritage. With little settlement or air traffic north of SaxaVord's location, it's considered safe to launch rockets. It took me two nights to reach Unst via the overnight Caledonian Sleeper train from London to Aberdeen, then NorthLink Ferries' night service to the Shetland capital, Lerwick. Then it was three hours by bus – via two roll-on, roll-off ferries – to the village of Baltasound.
The paradox of this wildly beautiful 12-mile-long island's interstellar ambition is quickly apparent. Treeless, rough sheep pasture is scattered with ruined stone crofts, and curlews and plovers sing all day long. Sapphire-blue lochs and steepling sea-cliffs are swarmed by seabirds and Unst's 60 excavated Viking longhouses recall its long occupation. Its name probably derives from the old Norse word 'Ornyst', meaning 'Eagle's Nest'.
'It won't exactly be Cape Canaveral,' said Steve, owner of Baltasound Hotel, currently Unst's only (and Britain's most northerly) hotel. 'I don't think the spaceport will attract many people as most come to see birds, seals, and orca.' He cites Unst's low-capacity ferry and a lack of accommodation as reasons why tourists probably won't arrive in asteroid clusters.
His 1860s-built hotel – especially its bar – was once popular with RAF personnel and oil rig workers. In the 1970s, Unst was a hub for ferrying them to the North Sea rigs and its population boomed to 1,200. The residents' restaurant is one of the few on Unst and the menu while I was there featured locally caught crab and scallops. I lodged in a cosy garden cabin with an interior resembling a Scandinavian sauna. It's said that when the mist came in and grounded the crews, the price of beer in the bar mysteriously doubled.
With a rented e-bike it was easy enough to explore the spaceport's vicinity. Unst's main road passes through Haroldswick, which has a replica Viking longhouse with a turfed roof and the Skidbladner, a longship built in Sweden in 2000 that adventurers planned to sail to America but only made it to Shetland. The road continues north-east until Skaw's deserted golden sand beach, 1,695 miles north of Dover.
The most noticeable reminder of the old RAF base is a concrete housing development resembling neo-brutalist ski chalets now housing spaceport construction workers. 'The RAF were welcomed and integrated really well – the base was a buzzing place,' islander Robin Mouatt remembered. 'We used the sports facilities, and they once flew in Bucks Fizz to perform.'
Spaceport signs warn 'aliens will be transported back to Mars' and from Saxa Vord Hill, in squally blusters sending seabirds flying sideways, I get a bird's-eye view of the flat-topped Lamba Ness peninsula, towards the launchpad and a rocket assembly shed.
Nearby is a bench with a barnstorming view over Burrafirth Beach. It was placed there by the social enterprise Wild Skies, which has created a cross-island Sky Trail of interpretation stops celebrating Unst's skies featuring audio poems and readings generated using QR codes. This bench tells me about 'Mirrie Dancers', a Shetland name for the Northern Lights. 'Unst stagnated a bit after the RAF left so we created something extra for visitors,' says Catriona Waddington of Wild Skies. 'Unst skies change so fast in the winds and the dark-sky stars are incredible.'
She said islanders have mixed feelings about the spaceport. 'There's been some benefits like road widening, but they haven't recruited a lot of islanders,' she said.
Curiously, the spaceport owns a distillery producing Shetland Reel gin, which is managed by an ex-Highlander, Mark Turnbull, arguably Britain's hardest working distiller who single-handedly produces it in a still named after his daughter. Tours must be booked in advance and Mark operates a laissez-faire approach to tasting, leaving me free to sample the entire range of (eight) gins unsupervised. It's very sippable – definitely not rocket fuel. One is called 'Countdown'.
'Richard Strang wanted this limited-edition one in the run-up to the first launch although we're cracking through it and unsure when that will be,' said Mark. My favourite, Ocean Sent, uses seaweed he harvests off local beaches with his son. 'I think the rocket launches will boost sales as people will want a souvenir after coming to see it,' he added.
The spaceport is adjacent to the Hermaness National Nature Reserve. A three-hour hike across boggy moorland led me to 500ft-high cliffs peeling away into sea-stacks featuring the formidable spectacle of 100,000 seabirds in peak nesting season, including six per cent of the North Atlantic breeding population of blue-eyed gannets. Puffins crash-landed into burrows with beaks full of sand eels. From here I could see the UK's absolute northernmost point, Muckle Flugga, an islet with an 1858 lighthouse as tall as a skyrocket. The lighthouse was constructed by Thomas Stevenson and it is said that when his son, Robert Louis, visited in 1869 he was inspired to write Treasure Island.
Derek and Cheryl Jamieson, both Unst-born and bred, feel the launches won't disturb this wildlife or Unst's traditional values. 'Previously we had RAF Skaw, so wildlife and islanders were used to planes and helicopters coming and going. Only people who've moved here more recently don't want change,' said Derek, a crofter.
I met them at Cheryl's glassmaking studio in Uyeasound called Glansin Glass where she fires fine contemporary glasswork with Shetland motifs like ponies and fish. 'Glansin', said Cheryl, translates as 'bright and shiny' in the old Shetland Nørn language. Derek, meanwhile, was the Jarl (lord) at February's Norwick Up Helly Aa fire festival, assuming the Viking persona Torbjørn Egilsson. I looked enviously at their wood-built, two-storey hilltop house with magnificent views over the sound. Derek laughed at notions of crofters living in dark little stone dwellings with no running water or electricity.
Unst is not an island that is going to be dragged kicking and screaming into the spotlight when the first rocket launch makes national news. 'We've always lived on the edge of things but we're a resilient and innovative people and the launches won't change our strong sense of community,' said Cheryl. Mission control, it would seem, has little to worry about the future trajectory of this fabulous island, many light years different to the rest of our nation.
Getting there
The Caledonian Sleeper from London Euston to Aberdeen costs £270 in a classic twin. A sleeping pod on the Northlink Ferries service from Aberdeen-Lerwick costs from £61 per person, or a two-berth cabin with car is from £348.
Staying there
Rooms at the Baltasound Hotel cost from £168 including breakfast.
