Balta

A historical perspective, drawn from the Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland: A Survey of Scottish Topography, Statistical, Biographical and Historical, edited by Francis H. Groome and originally published in parts by Thomas C. Jack, Grange Publishing Works, Edinburgh between 1882 and 1885.

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Balta, an islet in Unst parish, Shetland, lying to the E of Unst island. Balta Sound, separating it from Unst, is 2 miles long, and about ½ mile wide, and is so closed at the ends by Balta as to look, at a distance, like a lake. The land on both sides of the Sound is in a state of high cultivation. A hamlet here bears the name of Baltasound, and has a post office under Lerwick, with money order, savings' bank, and telegraph departments, and a public school, which, with accommodation for 100 children, had (1879) an average attendance of 42, and a grant of £89,8s. 5d.

An accompanying 19th C. Ordnance Survey map is available, or use the map tab to the right of this page.

Note: This text has been made available using a process of scanning and optical character recognition. Despite manual checking, some typographical errors may remain. Please remember this description dates from the 1880s; names may have changed, administrative divisions will certainly be different and there are known to be occasional errors of fact in the original text, which we have not corrected because we wish to maintain its integrity. This information is provided subject to our standard disclaimer