We stayed in one of the Nordabrake Self - Catering houses for a week.

The good news:
The place was perfectly clean, living room refurbished with quite new, nice & modern furniture.
The pictures on the website are in my opinion a bit misleading. The house is quite spacious and light. I'd estimate the living room to 20 sqm.
There's a lot of information on the resort and they really seem to care about the environment.
They also seem to work hard on improving the place / keeping it at a good standard, which might not be easy due to the remote location.
The staff is very friendly.
The place was very busy during the weekend, many Shetlanders visit Saxa Vord (which might be the reason why the must keep a quite good standard...)

The "not so good news":
The bathroom could need renovation, there is a little bit mildew around the bathtube and the pink tiles look somewhat strange...
WiFi is not yet available as of August 2011.
There is hardly mobile phone access! (which might be an advantage...) on the whole island.
The food at the restaurant was OK, the menu of the day was really very good, the other dish we had rather soso...

Conclusion:
Make sure to understand where you are going to: Unst is close to the end of the world :) We liked it very much, it's quite, hardly traffic, lots of sheep, rabbits, lonesome sandy beaches and wonderful walks, three shops and a swimming pool / leisure center, some playgrounds.
If you want to party / dance all night, Unst might not be the right place...
Saxa vord offers great money for value, if we come back to Unst, we'll stay there again!

If you are headed way way north inShetland, the Saxa Vord is excellent. We (4 of us) stayed in one of the old officers accomodation, and there is everything you want ... washing machine, three bedrooms, one full and one half bathroom, and fully equipped kitchen. lots to do in the area, especially in the Hermaness Nature Reserve.

My husband and I rented one of the Nordabrake self-catering houses for four nights in May at a very reasonable rate. The property could have slept five so even better value if there had been five of us. The carpets and towels were all very new, the property well heated and the beds comfortable. However, there were a few niggles. It looked like the property had been refurbished but the owners had lost interest before completing it. Picture hooks were on the walls but many of the pictures were missing. The bathroom could have done with towel rails and we never did get the heating to work in that room. The dining table and chairs were in the conservatory. Unfortunately it was impossible to see through the glass as there was condensation in between the double glazing, together with discoloured water, which spoilt the view. The kitchen was well equipped (with enough glasses to hold a party!) and it was easy to prepare a meal.

We ate in the Sergeant's Mess on the Saturday night. Most of those present appeared to be members of an American folk music band who were staying there and performed some of their music. We were surprised that more locals/holiday-makers weren't there too as it seemed to be a well-advertised performance. The food was very disappointing, although our young waitress was very polite and helpful. We didn't bother eating there again during our stay but we did visit the bar on another evening for a drink but there was only a couple of other people there.

The Saxa Vord resort is a strange place. It was originally an RAF base and housed the servicemen and their families. It's in a very remote place at the northern-most tip of the northern-most island of Shetland. The area will appeal to those people who are into bird-spotting, walking and exploring the amazing coastline of Unst. But the resort isn't attractive. There are many ugly disused buildings. The restaurant and bar aren't great and the self-catering accommodation (while good value and "good in parts") could be so much better with just a little more effort. I'm not sure which market the owners are aiming at and can't see how they can make a profit with so few people staying there. Even if they are busy in June/July/August, it is a very short window of opportunity to make a profit.

So would I recommend staying at Saxa Vord? Well maybe for the experience of staying at an ex-RAF station, for the proximity of Herma Ness and the good value of renting a Nordabrake self-catering property (especially if there are five of you). But overall I don't think I would want to stay there again. My favourite part of Shetland was Muckle Roe. To be honest, I wasn't that keen on Yell, Unst and Fetlar, though my husband (who spent most of the time with binoculars glued to his face looking at birds) liked the islands more than I did.

We stayed at Saxa Vord as part of a large group on a Shetland Wildlife Safari. The location was fantastic with lovely views and the actual self catering accommodation was fantastic. We stayed in a house each with three bedrooms, lounge and dining area and fully equipped kitchen. A great base for a self catering holiday.

We ate as a large group in the evenings in the Sergeants Mess. We had a pre dinner drink from the honesty bar that was set up next to the dining area. We sat as a big group and on each evening we were given a menu with a choice of at least three starters, three mains and three desserts. I have to agree with the previous review that on the first couple of evenings the meals were a bit on the cold side, but once they were told about this the meals were served hot and they were good sized portions and everything you needed after a great day out in the fresh air. One of our party was a vegetarian and nothing was too much trouble to arrange a variety of meals to her liking.

The staff were extremely accommodating at breakfast, they took orders from the whole group with every weird and wonderful request being met. There was plenty of hot coffee and tea on the go and as much toast and preserves as you could manage.

There was one incident with the Sticky Toffee Pudding, where the wrong sauce was poured over the pudding, this was quickly rectified and it had the whole group in hysterics. The staff were mortified but had to laugh at the situation due the group laughing so much. No harm done there.

There is a lovely bar area where we could enjoy a nightcap and on the Saturday evening of our stay they had a group of some of Shetland’s top traditional musicians playing in the bar and you really could not help but tap your feet.

A special mention to Neil and his team at Saxa Vord who looked after all 29 of our group, which included guides and organisers. They did everything they could to make our stay enjoyable and we can’t wait to return.