When Sir Walter Scott visited the site on Shetland in 1814, he called it “Jarlshof” based on it being the “laird’s house”. This was prior to the storm that unearthed some of what was beneath and surrounding the remains of the laird’s house. Once excavations began, it was discovered that the history of the site dated back as far as 2500 BC. It includes Neolithic remains, Bronze Age houses and a smithy, an Iron Age broch and some houses, Pictish wheelhouses, a Norse settlement including a longhouse, a medieval farm, and the remains of a 17th century castle.
I found that I could actually walk around amongst all of this. I could also touch the walls and actually needed to duck to get inside of some of the buildings – unusual for me.
In a place like this where we were in a limited area, I knew what time to be back at the coach (and knew where the coach was parked), and we had listening devices for the tour guide’s commentary, I could wander away from the group to take photos and explore. That way my back stayed happy as I kept moving and I could get my photos without having loads of others in them or competing with me for them. I could still hear what the guide was saying and could keep track of where they were in case I needed to go back there to see something special they were pointing out. I am sharing 27 photos with this post, but I took 74 photos of Jarlshof (176 total of Shetland).
The earliest finds so far have been Neolithic (2500 – 1500 BC). This was at the end of the same time period as Skara Brae (3180 to 2500 BC). The remains of one oval, stone-built structure has thus far been uncovered from the Neolithic period. In the photos I have included here of that time period, you can see what looks like a stone inside of a stone near an upright stone in the second and third photos. This is a trough quern, used for grinding barley and wheat.
There are three distinct Bronze Age houses at Jarlshof. They are from roughly 2000 to 800 BC and are smaller than the houses at Skara Brae. Otherwise, they are quite similar. People were raising sheep and cattle at this time. They also had access to fish, shellfish, wildfowl and seals. A skeleton of a dog was found just outside one of the houses. Evidence at the smithy (who moved in about 800 BC) indicates that axes, knives, swords and pins were produced there. A bronze dagger was found at the site. The Bronze Age trough quern was smaller than the Neolithic one had been.
The Iron Age settlement was partially built on top of the Bronze Age settlement. This was at about 500 – 300 BC. Internal piers were much lighter than the thick buttresses from the Bronze Age, which gave more space inside of the houses. The style was still of cells radiating out from a central hearth and was entered via a paved passage from the seaward side.
By the Iron Age, the trough quern had been replaced by a saddle quern, which was much smaller and lighter than the trough quern. You can see a saddle quern in the sixth photo I have included here in roughly the bottom left of the photo.
In addition to having better tools, spindle whorls and weaving tools found here indicate that fabric weaving and spinning was increasing. In addition to the sheep and cattle, evidence has been found that people were keeping pigs, dogs, and small ponies.
New underground storage areas for perishable food have also been found there. There isn’t any access to visitors to the large Iron Age souterrain. It is at the end of a long, narrow passage and is actually underneath the visitor pathway. But I took a photo of a smaller one from a Pictish wheelhouse. It is the 21st of the 27 photos I have included here.
The broch, which was a fortified dwelling, was built during the late Iron Age (100 BC- 100 AD). Part of the broch was lost to the sea. It is thought to have been originally 13 metres (40 feet) in height. It was exciting to me to be able to walk around inside of the remains of an actual broch. I also explored what remained of the stairs within the walls (see the 26th photo).
The broch was encircled by the wheelhouses. There were four of them. These were built by the Picts from about 200 – 300 AD and were lived in until around 800 AD. I had never seen anything like the wheelhouses before, much less be able to walk around inside of them. I found them to be quite amazing. Many of the wheelhouses that I explored still had a good portion of their roofs. Since I was mostly alone in them, I felt very much like I was transported back in time. Being in out of the wind was helpful too as it was a very chilly, damp wind, right on the edge of the sea as we were. The passages into the wheelhouses tended to curve, so I wasn’t feeling the wind smacking against me much until I came back out of the entrance.
The Norse settled at Jarlshof in about 850. It was quite easy to see the remains of a Viking longhouse (9th photo). The farmstead lasted for about 12 to 16 generations and had been replaced by a farmhouse (8th photo) to the east by the late 1200s (about 1275). This included a barn and grain kilns.
Once Shetland became part of Scotland in 1469, it came under the control of Earl Robert Stewart, the illegitimate son of King James V of Scotland in the 1500s. He converted a medieval stone farmhouse into a fortified house in the 16th century. His son, Patrick Stewart, who by all accounts was not a nice guy, made changes to the property, turning it into a castle, in the early 17th century. By the late 17th century, it was abandoned. Although Sir Walter Scott named the site after the “Jarlshof” or earl’s house in his novel The Pirate. Its proper name is Sumburgh, from the Old Norse “borg”, meaning fort.
Since I was so far ahead of most of the group, even with all of the photos I was taking and exploring I was doing, I found I had plenty of time to not only check out the exhibits and the gift shop at the visitor’s center, but to also get some hot chocolate with Bailey’s at the hotel where the coach was parked.
Despite the fact that real Vikings did not wear helmets with horns on them, I couldn’t resist buying a knit helmet with horns to wear in the frosty winters at home at the gift shop. I also got a Viking ship Christmas tree ornament.
Jarlshof is another place I would be more than happy to visit again. I would also like to spend more time in Lerwick, and check out the puffins and other cool birds at Sumburgh Head lighthouse. Also, is it possible to go out to the island of Mousa and venture inside of that broch?
Next time – Shetland Ponies
