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

Old Unst Church and its churchyard, located in Baliasta, Unst, date back to 1764. This traditional hall church features six one-bay sections and has near-symmetrical design elements. The walls are made of harl-pointed rubble with sandstone ashlar dressings and margins, which are chamfered at the edges.

The east gable is symmetrical, with a round-arched doorway at the center and a round-arched window above it in the gablehead. The south elevation is also near-symmetrical, with windows below the wallhead flanking the center. There is a doorway in the penultimate bay to the left, a window in the penultimate bay to the right, a window in the outer left bay, and another window at the eaves in the outer right bay. The west gable matches the east gable in design.

On the north elevation, there is a full-height opening to the right of center, which has surviving window margins and is closed by cast-iron railings with fleur-de-lys finials. There is a low rubble-infilled doorway to the outer left.

Inside, the joist-holes of a U-plan gallery, which is now gone, can be seen along the north wall and to the outer left and right of the south wall. The churchyard features a random rubble wall that encloses the area, with a stone stile to the north of the church and a modern timber gate to the west. To the east, there are square cement-rendered gatepiers with pyramidal caps and two-leaf timber gates. Additionally, there are a series of rubble-walled enclosures to the northeast and late 19th-century memorials to the south, which consist of concrete dwarf walls topped with decorative cast-iron brattishing.