Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
off in the “simmer dim” twilight. Even if you've no interest in the storm petrels, which
appear like bats as they flit about in the half-light, the chance to explore the broch at
midnight is worth it alone.
St Ninian's Isle
Halfway down South Mainland, a road leads to
Bigton
, on the west coast. From the
village, a signposted track heads down to a spectacular sandy causeway, or
tombolo
,
connecting
St Ninian's Isle
. he tombolo - a concave strip of shell sand with Atlantic
breakers crashing on either side - is usually exposed so you can walk over to the island,
where you'll find the ruins of a medieval church.
Crofthouse Museum
Mid-April to Sept daily 10am-1pm & 2-5pm • Free •
T
01950 460557,
W
shetlandheritageassociation.com
Housed in a well-to-do thatched croft in Southvoe, built around 1870, the
Crofthouse
Museum
re-creates the feel of crofting life, with a peat fire, traditional box beds and so
forth. Adjacent to the living quarters is the byre for the cows and tatties, and the kiln
for drying the grain. Crofting was mostly done by women in Shetland, while the men
went out haaf-net fishing for the laird. Down by the nearby burn, there's also a restored
thatched horizontal mill.
16
Old Scatness Broch and Iron Age Villlage
T
01595 694688,
W
shetlandamenity.org
Extending the airport revealed a vast Iron-Age archaological site known as
Old Scatness
Broch and Iron Age Village
. At the centre of the site are the remains of an Iron Age
broch, surrounded by a settlement of interlocking wheelhouses - so called because of
their circular ground plan. Two of the wheelhouses have been either partially or wholly
reconstructed, but visits currently need to be arranged in advance with Shetland
Amenity Trust.
Jarlshof
Daily: April-Sept 9.30am-5.30pm; Oct-March 9.30am to dusk • £5.50; HS
Of all the archeological sites in Shetland,
Jarlshof
is the largest and most impressive.
What makes Jarlshof so amazing is the fact that you can walk right into a house built
1600 years ago, which is still intact to above head height. he site is big and confusing,
scattered with the ruins of buildings dating from the Bronze Age to the early
seventeenth century. he name - misleading, as it is not primarily a Viking site - was
coined by Sir Walter Scott, who used the ruins of the Old House in his novel
he
Pirate
. However, it was only at the end of the nineteenth century that the Bronze Age,
Iron Age and Viking settlements you see now were discovered, after a violent storm
ripped off the top layer of turf.
he Bronze Age smithy and Iron Age dwellings nearest the entrance are nothing
compared with the cells which cluster around the
broch
, close to the sea. Only half of the
original broch survives, and its courtyard is now an Iron Age aisled roundhouse, with
stone piers. However, it's di
cult to distinguish the broch from the later Pictish
wheelhouses
which now surround it. Still, it's all great fun to explore, as you're free to
roam around the cells, checking out the in-built stone shelving, water tanks, beds and so
on. Inland lies the maze of grass-topped foundations marking out the
Viking longhouses
,
from the ninth century AD. Towering over the whole complex are the ruins of the laird's
house, built by Robert Stewart, Earl of Orkney and Lord of Shetland, in the late sixteenth
century, and the
Old House
of Sumburgh
, built by his son, Earl Patrick.
