Heritage buildings to benefit from proceeds of Belmont House sale

UNST’s Boat Haven and Heritage Centre museums are to receive more than £150,000 in grant funding for repair and maintenance.

The money is coming from Shetland Charitable Trust’s (SCT) Belmont Built Heritage Grant Scheme.

It was set up to distribute a total of £215,940 donated to the SCT last year by the Belmont Trust after it sold off Belmont House in Unst.

The Belmont Trust had painstakingly restored the house from a derelict state.

The funds going to the boat haven and heritage centre – worth a total of £151,291- will be used to repair the buildings and maintain the stable environments needed to preserve their historic collections.

Three other grants from the Belmont fund will go towards the upkeep of other buildings in Shetland.

A total of £42,865 will be used to replace decaying windows at Voxter House and repair stone boundary walls at the popular outdoor centre.

A grant of £17,130 to the Burra History Group will go towards roof repairs on the category A-listed Easthouse croft house.

Meanwhile essential stone repairs and fire safety improvements at the Category B-listed Voe House in Walls will be assisted with a grant of £4,654.

The approved awards mean the funding for this grant scheme has been fully used.