Shetland - The Rough Guide to Scottish Highlands and Islands - page 381

of late nineteenth-century crofting life, with a peat fire, traditional box beds and so
forth. Adjacent to the living quarters are 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 fishing for the laird. Down by the burn, there's also a restored, thatched
horizontal mill.

Quendale Mill
Mid-April to mid-Oct daily 10am-5pm • £3 • T 01950 460969, W shetlandheritageassociation.com
A few miles south of the Loch of Spiggie lies the beautifully restored full-size Quendale
Mill , in the village of the same name, overlooking a sandy south-facing bay. It was built
in the 1860s but not in operation since the early 1970s; you can explore the interior
and watch a short video of the mill working, and there's a tearoom attached.

Old Scatness Broch and Iron Age Village
T 01595 694688, W shetlandamenity.org
Extending the airport revealed a vast Iron-Age archeological 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. The site is big and confusing,
scattered with the ruins of buildings dating from the Bronze Age to the early seventeenth
century. The name, which is 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 The Pirate . However,
it was only at the end of the nineteenth century that the Bronze Age, Iron Age and
Viking settlements were discovered, after a violent storm ripped of the top layer of turf.
The Bronze Age smithy and Iron Age dwellings nearest the entrance, dating from the
second and first millennia BC, 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. It's difficult to
distinguish the broch from the later Pictish wheelhouses that now surround it, but 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.

8

Sumburgh Head
The Mainland comes to a dramatic end at Sumburgh Head (262ft), which rises sharply
out of the land only to drop vertically into the sea. The clifftop lighthouse was built by
Robert Stevenson in 1821, and the road up to it is the perfect site for watching nesting
seabirds such as kittiwakes, fulmars, shags, razorbills and guillemots, as well as gannets
diving for fish. This is also the easiest place in Shetland to get close to pu ns : during
the nesting season (May to early Aug), you simply need to look over the western wall,
just before you enter the lighthouse complex, to see them arriving at their burrows a
few yards below with beakfuls of sand eels or giving flying lessons to their offspring.
FROM TOP JARLSHOF P.384 ; UP HELLY AA P.376 >