Unkans Magazine

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Read our old issues of Unkans magazine

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We hope you enjoy our free online activities. The Shetland Museum and Archives is managed by the Shetland Amenity Trust, a small charity caring for Shetland's natural and cultural heritage. We are a free to visit museum and any donations are welcomed to help the Trust care for the collections and our heritage both now and in the future.

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Unkans Magazine Blog Posts

Archives

Memories from the archives

May 30th 2023

Grace Leask (née Mouat) shared her memories of time spent as a gutter lass in Shetland.

Museum and Archives NewsArchives

Celebrating World Book Day with Shetland's Oldest Known Book - Boece

March 1st 2023

For anyone who wants to read about Shetland, the archives is a good place to come. Our book collection, we like to think, is perhaps ...

Archives

Love letters from the past

February 14th 2023

Since we’ve got to St Valentine’s Day the time has come to consider the Shetland Archives holdings on the subject of love. Do we ...

ArchivesMuseum and Archives News

Remembering George P.S. Peterson

November 21st 2022

George P.S. Peterson died recently at the age of 90. He was a notable archival source, teacher, writer, storyteller, folk dancer, and ...

Archives

Robert Barclay, East India Company

November 1st 2022

The Bruce of Symbister collection in the Shetland Archives, GD144, is a collection of bundled papers. Since it isn’t feasible to ...

ArchivesMuseum and Archives News

Alexander Wallace

September 8th 2022

A very welcome book came out recently. Developed from a Ph.D., 'Shetland Boats: Origin, Evolution and Use', by Dr Marc Chivers ...

Museum and Archives NewsArchives

Archivist Brian Smith receives distinguished service award

September 5th 2022

We’re delighted that Brian Smith’s dedication to Shetland’s historical records has been recognised with a distinguished service ...

ArchivesHistory

The Elvira

August 15th 2022

Stories of shipwreck have long occupied the Shetland imagination. One Shetlander, R. Stuart Bruce (1873-1951), devoted much of his ...

Museum and Archives NewsArchives

Da Wadder

July 29th 2022

The weather is never far from conversation here, and it hasn’t been a great summer. Some good days though, and on July 19 the ...

HistoryArchivesMuseum and Archives News

The Laurel

June 23rd 2022

The Shetland Times, 12 October 1907 reported an important event at the Ness. Harry Irvine of Glenfield got a Fifie fishing boat, the ...

Archives

Letters on Shetland

May 6th 2022

I got a book in the post the other day, always a good thing. 'Letters on Shetland' by Peter Jamieson (1898-1976), published in 1949 ...

Archives

World Book Day

March 3rd 2022

On World Book Day, it is worth musing about the history of library collections in Shetland. There have been highs and lows in the ...

ArchivesHistory

550 Years Ago: how Shetland became part of Scotland - part 2

February 14th 2022

Shetland and Orkney became part of Scotland 550 years ago, on 20 February 1472. Denmark’s economic interests were concentrated in ...

HistoryArchives

A reminiscence of a traditional Shetland wedding

February 14th 2022

When lockdown came, one of our first sad tasks was to tell two couples who’d planned a wedding in the museum that it couldn’t ...

Museum and Archives NewsArchivesHistory

550 Years Ago: how Shetland became part of Scotland

February 3rd 2022

A fortnight ago some women and men from the South Mainland of Shetland marched in Glasgow with torches. They were commemorating the ...

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