Community / Historic environment agency to investigate ‘Britain’s most northerly graffiti’ at former radar base
HISTORIC Environment Scotland says it will investigate reports of graffiti being emblazoned on part of the former Skaw radar station in Unst, which is deemed to be of national importance.
The former World War II site is a scheduled monument, which is a title given to the country’s “most significant sites and monuments”.
A spokesperson for Historic Environment Scotland, which oversees scheduled monuments, said any works to these structures – including the application of paint – requires consent.
“It is an offence to undertake works without consent and we will investigate in line with our enforcement policy,” they said.
The paint appears to make reference to being the most northerly graffiti in Britain.
The former radar station received headlines of a different kind earlier this year amid plans to develop a spaceport on part of the land.
Historic Environment Scotland rejected the plans, which SaxaVord Spaceport said it would try to overturn.
The agency said the site is a “remarkably well-preserved military complex dating to the early 1940s” – adding the “loss of the monument would significantly diminish our future ability to appreciate and understand the scale of the efforts employed on the home front in the defence of Britain”.
The police said it had not received any recent reports of graffiti on the structure.
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