The Skidbladner

Little exhibition building with a full size boat which you can aboard. Interested. Located just on a side of the road, cat park available.

Interesting roadside attraction a replica including plumbing for underfloor heating and combi boiler extraction flu mount

Interesting place I could of done with more to explore

This is quite a boat, shame it's not afloat, but it's quite easy to imagine.The long house is also worth a visit. In high season look out for the guides, very knowledgeable and hands on.

Wow brilliant, thank you.

Unst is the most northerly island in Britain, and thought to be the first landfall from any ship venturing out from the west coast of Norway. Due to its location, Shetland has always played an integral part in Viking history in the North Atlantic.Legends hold that Unst was where the first longship beached.On Unst alone, there are the remains of at least 60 longhouses, the highest density of rural Viking sites anywhere, including Scandinavia.The Skidbladner is a full size replica of the 9th century Gokstad ship, which was discovered in a burial in Vestfold. The Gokstad ship is thought to have been built during the reign of Harald Fairhar, who is said to have landed in Unst, and after whom the bay of Haroldswick is named.In the Prose Edda, the dwarfs give the God Freyr both Gullinbursti and Skíðblaðnir: the finest ship, large enough to carry all the Gods. This mythical ship is said to receive fair wind whenever its sail was set, and that it will go wherever it needs to, and that it can be folded up much as cloth and placed in one's pocket at will. You can see one of the dwarfs still on the ship in the 4th photo :) .Like the Gokstad ship, the Skidbladner is largely constructed of oak, built in Sweden in the clinker fashion which made her light and flexible. Each plank was slightly tapered, overlapping the plank above and held in place with iron rivets.from Norway to America. Unfortunately, she never made it any further than Shetland and was eventually purchased by Shetland Amenity Trust and moved here in Haroldswick.The ship is 24.3 metres long and 5.25 metres wide.

Great educational place.

As a part of our journey to Unst we decided to go and see this fantastic feature. It is great to experience something reconstructed in 1:1 scale. There is an easy access to enter the boat and visitors have a chance to see what it was to be a part of the crew.

Fascinating replica Viking ship and longhouse. Well described by the information boards.