Belmont House sale donation will preserve other parts of Unst heritage

September 22nd 2025

The Unst Boat Haven and Heritage Centre is to receive the lion’s share of grant money generated from the sale of the restored Belmont House in the same island.

The award comprising £151,291 will be used to repair the museum buildings in Unst and maintain the stable environments needed to preserve their historic collections.

The grant is the largest of four announced by Shetland Charitable Trust under its Belmont Built Heritage Grant Scheme. It was set up to distribute the proceeds donated to it last year by the Belmont Trust after selling Belmont House and ceasing to be active. The trust had painstakingly restored the house from a derelict state.

The three other buildings to benefit from the £215,940 fund are Voxter House near Brae, the restored croft house at Duncansclett in Burra and the former camping bod in Walls.

Voxter Centre Trust will use £42,865 of grant money to replace decaying windows and repair stone boundary walls in the popular outdoor centre.

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

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.

Testimonials

The funding COPE Ltd receives from the Shetland Charitable Trust supports us in many ways. It allows us to develop and maintain a strong foundation to our core business and assists us to provide on-going employment skill development opportunities to people with disabilities living within Shetland. COPE Ltd highly values the support provided to our organisation by The Shetland Charitable Trust.

“The substantial grant made to us by Shetland Charitable Trust every year allows us to provide first-class facilities and dedicated staff to underpin sporting success among people of all ages and abilities in the islands.”

Having this core funding from the Charitable Trust means that we can use that money where we need it at any given time. It's multi-year funding which really takes the pressure off. To have the funding to keep going is really important as it is improving the lives of disabled folk in Shetland.

The funding that we get from the Charitable Trust pays for part of staff support and matching with other funders. Without local funders we wouldn't have national funders, and without either of those funders, we wouldn't be able to do this, so funding from the Shetland Charitable Trust is incredibly important.

The funding Shetland Arts gets from Shetland Charitable Trust is about making sure the organisation can thrive, access other funds, and deliver on behalf of the community of Shetland. Our funding from the Shetland Charitable Trust really helps us with our conversations with national funders because it shows that we're working on behalf of what the local objectives and priorities are.

The Access to Leisure scheme was introduced to allow folk to be able to get access to classes and activities for a lower cost. I feel that the SRT play a critical role in every community across Shetland and that's all down to the funding of the Shetland Charitable Trust that we're able to maintain that.

Unpaid carers do an amazing job looking after people 24/7 in their own homes, keeping them living at home safely, and they really need help to do that. Thanks to the funding from Shetland Charitable Trust, we've been able to employ a deputy manager, recruit more care attendants, and provide overnights. We're also really grateful for the funding because it means that everybody can get the service for free.