AgyVan on Tour: Iron Age Brochs, Picts and Vikings

I think it is fair to say, we both had the same favourite day in Shetland. If you have been reading this blog for a while, or know us well, you will know we love visiting historic sites and this day excelled.

We began the day driving south, driving across the airport runway at Sumburgh Airport to reach our first destination. Jarlshof Prehistoric and Norse settlement. Jarlshof is towards the south of the mainland of Shetland near Sumburgh lighthouse and hidden away behind a hotel (that did a delicious lunch!).

Neolithic people first settled here about 2500 BC and it remained occupied until the 1600’s. A huge period of time, and so although a small site, it is packed full of oval Bronze Age houses, an Iron Age Broch, Norse longhouses, a Medieval farm and a Lairds house.

Set on the coast, it’s a stunning location. It’s not easy to take photos that show off the site well without a drone, but hopefully you can get an idea from the photos.

As you enter the site, you are welcomed by the volunteers and are encouraged to visit the small museum where you can have a go at Tafl, an ancient game which was played all over the Norse world. A taster of what is to come.

This was the first Broch we’d seen, although we’d learn more about them later in the day, you can see here the 2 walls that are a key part of Broch design.

We also saw Wheel houses ( that are round with ‘spokes’ within the walls)

Jarlshof is also one of the few places that proves that Norse communities were settled in the Highlands in early Medieval times.

It is believed the final residents left in the 1600’s as the Laird moved. That’s over 4000 years of continuous settlement. There was something special about standing in this ancient village seeing helicopters take off and land at the nearby airport. A place where history and the modern world collide.

Chatting to the volunteer on site as we left (while picking up a few souvenirs and gifts for friends) he asked if we had been to the other historic site locally, Old Scatness Broch and Iron Age village. I explained that we had really wanted to visit, but the website said it had closed for the season just before we arrived in Shetland, so we were really disappointed. With a cheeky grin he told us you can go in by sneaking round the back, even if it is shut and we simply must visit as he had actually built the reconstructed round house when he volunteered there.

So off we went determined to find a way in.

Situated right next to the runway at the airport Old Skatness lay undiscovered for thousands of years, until a road was being constructed that was thought to be cutting through a natural earth mound. Discovering stonework a local historian was asked to take a look and identified it as a Broch and the road was diverted and the site left alone.

Twenty or so years later the Shetland Amenity Trust began to excavate the site, using the latest techniques and aiming to break down academic barriers to archaeology, volunteers, students and archaeologists worked together to excavate the site.

Each summer the site is open to visitors, where you are guided around the site by an archaeologist who brings it to life, dispelling myths and sharing what they learn, and how what they have found has led to changes in thinking about Iron Age life.

However as the website said the site had closed the week before, we weren’t very hopeful of getting a guided tour. We didn't arrive until about 3.15 pm as we’d expected not to be able to visit, but did see a small group of people on site, so we snuck past the closed sign, found the ‘way out’ and in we went- very unlike us!

Before we knew it a man was rushing over to us to say we couldn’t come in and just walk around the site. We explained how we’d seen the website said it was shut but had been told we must visit by the volunteer at Jarlshof; and that he’d built the roundhouse we were now standing outside. I think we won him over with our excited faces… and he suggested we could join the tour that had just started and pay later, as this was in fact the last tour of the year, so we wouldn’t be able to return later.

As we toured the site the archaeologist explained that Brochs demonstrate the crowning achievement of prehistoric people living in Northern Europe. Dating from around 400-200BC they show complex engineering architectural solutions to creating multi storied towers up to 13m high. The Broch and Village at Old Scatness is unique, demonstrating how the broch building style developed and how cultural values changed as the village became Pictish. The discovery here has revolutionised thinking and challenged modern perception of Iron Age life. They now believe that communities lived harmoniously together ,helping each other , possibly even helping build the incredibly complex Broch’s over many years. They also now suspect that contrary to conventional wisdom, the smaller dwellings were probably the higher status properties - only wealthy people could afford to live just as one family in their own home, rather than in a large shared home with multiple generations of families together.

Additionally it’s now thought that the double walled Broch was not a defensive structure as was the previous thought, but rather a more practical design to allow for storage in the outer walls, where things are protected from the worst of the weather, but apart from the main living areas which were warm with floor coverings and plastered walls.

The stairs constructed in the main Broch at Old Scatness shows the sophistication of their building, and changed much of the thinking about how Iron Age/Pictish people lived.

The reconstructed roundhouse was fabulous and within the small education room was a reconstruction of a bear drawing that was found face down in the mud floor of the original roundhouse.

The original stone carving is in the Lerwick museum which we found the following day, but the most remarkable thing about this carving is that bears didn’t ever exist in Shetland. Yet whoever drew this had clearly seen a real bear - it is far too realistic to have been based on a description. Demonstrating people living here in the Iron Age must have travelled long distances to places where bears live.

A truly magical day made even more special by the fact we managed to visit the site that was supposed to be closed, did something we would never usually do - gatecrashing an historical monument and managing to join the last tour of the season, just a few moments after it started.

With just a day left on Shetland we thought we had better visit the iconic TV location and find Jimmy’s house and The Lodberrie as well as find a few Christmas gifts for friends.

Of course on Shetland there's always a bonus broch, and view to tempt you to explore, so we headed to the brock of Clickimin before getting back in Agy.