SUTTON Travels: Jarlshof, Shetland, Scotland

29 August 2022

Jarlshof, Shetland, Scotland

After our ship anchored at Lewick, Shetland, we got bus 6 south to the Jarlshof settlements at Sumburgh Head by the southern end of Mainland Shetland.

With an audio guide, we wend our way through Neolithic houses, to a Bronze age village, an Iron broch and wheelhouse, a Norse longhouse, a medieval farm, and a laird's house from the 1500s.

Stone Age house site

Bronze Age Smithy

Iron Age Broch

Broch Signboard

Iron Age Wheelhouse- named for the spoke-like wall structures.

Wheel House Signboard

The size of the settlement is not obvious from the road. A person helps appreciate the size of the dwellings.

The Norse Settlement reveals a preference for rectangular houses. The Vikings may have arrived about 850.

Remains of a Medieval Farmhouse

The Laird's House is what was visible when Sir Walter Scott visited in 1814.

There are some fantastic views of the site from the tower at the east end of the Laird's House.

Notes from our visit August 2022

We took bus 6 from Lerwick to Sumburgh.

The entrance to Jarlshof is marked by a sign and is only a short walk past some Shetland ponies.

We paid a small fee at the visitor's centre, which accepted our English Heritage pass.

The audio guides are excellent. You enter a number corresponding to the sign board along the trail from the oldest settlements to the more recent Laird's house.

Sir Walter Scott is the person who named Jarlshof, which he saw when on a cruise in 1814. At the time he only saw the Laird's house. Jarlshof is the setting for Scott's novel, The Pirate.

A broch is a stone structure that dates from the Iron Age, which in Scotland dates from about 300 to 900 (historic-uk). There are many brochs in the Scottish isles.

A Scottish Laird was an owner of a large Scottish estate. A Laird is not exactly the same as an English Lord--Lords, but not Lairds, are members of nobility.

Bus and bus stop