Exploring 4,000 years of Shetland history at Jarlshof
Shetland is home to many fascinating archaeological sites, but Jarlshof stands apart as one of the few places where you can explore ruins spanning over 4,000 years all in a single location. In this blog, award-winning travel writer Robin McKelvie takes us on a journey through this extraordinary site, from the late Neolithic era to the Viking age and beyond.
As relatively recently as a couple of centuries ago, Jarlshof was little more than a grassy mound. A violent storm uncovered the site and landowner John Bruce started to dig. Now Historic Scotland look after the site and it has been excavated over the years, unearthing a world of treasures.
“Shetland’s archaeology and its prehistoric stories have long gone under the radar compared to Orkney,” says Scott, the seriously helpful and enthusiastic gent who lets me into what for me is one of the most remarkable historic sites I’ve been to anywhere in the world. “And Jarlshof is really accessible as you can ramble in and around, really get a feel for what it is and how lucky we are to have what we are blessed with here.”
Jarlshof really is indeed a special place, so special that this is now my sixth visit. In these days when tourist attractions can be very busy it is mercifully just me and a one small group exploring the expansive site. There is plenty of space for us all with so much to check out. And the setting is sublime: as I peer along the coast towards the brooding hulk of Sumburgh Head the sun warms my face and an otter breaks the surface just metres away.
There is hope that Jarlshof will soon join Orkney’s prehistoric delights on the UNESCO World Heritage list as part of the ‘Zenith of Iron Age Shetland’ bid. This includes the epic Mousa Broch and the Old Scatness prehistoric village site just across the road.
On UNESCO’s website they recognise the importance of Jarlshof: “Jarlshof is an impressive multiperiod site, spanning the Neolithic to 17th century AD. Its Iron Age levels include a remodelled broch and the remains of a roundhouse. Crucially however, it includes three exceptionally preserved wheelhouses, where the corbelled roofs of the cells still survive. Whilst the structures are smaller and the stones used are largely field and beach stone, corbelling the cells displays a high degree of skill and proficiency in stonework.”
Scott cuts to the heart of what is so unmissable about the site: “Jarlshof has so many periods in one site. We have Stone, Bronze and Iron Age here, right through to Norse and the Scottish lairds.” Doing my own digging I learn too about a Megalithic midden found on the beach here and test digs in 2004 that have dated local barley to 3600BC, easily pre-dating Stonehenge.
It’s hard to believe that as relatively recently as a couple of centuries ago Jarlshof was little more than a grassy mound. A violent storm uncovered the site and landowner John Bruce started to dig. In 1925 the site was passed to the government and now Historic Environment Scotland look after it. It has been excavated over the years, unearthing a world of treasures.
It’s quite something delving through the centuries at Jarlshof. I wander around a 4,000-year-old house imagining the peat hearth bringing life to all around it. I switch between late Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age, with the audio headset a handy guide. There are so many mindboggling elements – how did the prehistoric inhabitants for example get their hands on tin from Cornwall?
As I wander I think about what the man behind the Ness of Brodgar digs, Nick Card, who once told me – “If you want something built ask a Neolithic builder.” You really see all the different construction styles of ‘simple’ houses that have stood the ultimate tests of time and weather. There are wheelhouses, tilting stone walls, lintels and structural stone slabs. So much to look at. And to think about. It’s like bring inside a glossy TV documentary, but you are actually here experiencing it all unfold right here in front of you.
It’s hard to pick favourites, but the oval-shaped Bronze Age houses and the sturdy remnants of the Iron Age broch are still making me smile as I write this. I love that you can ramble right around the site – in so many places around the world our history is shut away from us by fences or Perspex. Not here. I pop down into a stone house, emerge again through a different portal, before disappearing down another historic rabbit’s hole. It’s like a giant playground for adults.
I could spend all day focusing on the seriously prehistoric, but instead move on to the Norse colonisers who came around 850AD and stayed on to until 1,300AD. They built one large farm and a slew of housing, with a dozen generations of additions. The remnants of the rectangular longhouses are spectacular. Not wooden like many in Norway, but sturdy, lasting stone with a grass and heather roof. I guess stone was easier than bringing wood on a 48 hour sail from Bergen.
When I studied the Vikings at school, I never imagined for a second I would ever be walking around one of their houses right here in Scotland. If you always thought of the Norse as rampaging maritime warriors, Jarlshof turns that on its head as they emerge as farmers, settlers happily living off the land here. Forget horned helmets and longships; think settling down, raising crops and families.
We move on from direct Viking influence, which ended in 1469 with an infamous marriage dowry that gifted Shetland to Scotland. The tallest building at Jarlshof is no longer a Norse one. It is a brutish laird’s house that grew up during the 1500s migration north of Lowlands Scots. Jarlshof after all means ‘earl’s house’. Sir Walter Scott named the site after the house, but didn’t sound impressed, writing of a ‘rude building of rough stone with nothing about it to gratify the eye’.
It’s worth visiting the house just to climb the stairs. They open up views over most of Jarlshof. From here you can see over 4,000 years of continuous human inhabitation. It strikes me that this is not a remote corner of the British Isles as it is often depicted. Not at all. Jarlshof was a real hub.
Jarlshof was once a beating heart for prehistoric man where generations not only existed, but thrived. And then it became a major stopping off point and settlement for the Norse on their trading routes to mainland Scotland, England, Ireland and North America, an oasis between mainland Scotland and Norway. What a place!
By Robin McKelvieRobin McKelvie is an award-winning travel writer and broadcaster who has been published in over 200 magazines and newspapers worldwide.
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