Mousa, Old Scatness and Jarlshof

Following our stay on the Orkneys in Summer 2019 we spent around four days on the Shetland Islands. We took the ferry, which was rather expensive. Mainly for our rental car and for the cabin we booked since the trip is surprisingly long, 8 hours or so, and the trip up north leaves late in the evening and arrives in the morning. If you sleep on the floor or in a chair it is much cheaper, if I remember correctly.
Cultural heritage on the Shetlands is much less numerous then on the Orkneys but they certainly do not disappoint because several of the sites are unique. The greatest site is Jarlshof. It is not quite as old as Skara Brae, let alone the Knap of Howar, but they still reach back 4000 years, which is not bad for a site so far north. But they great thing about Jarlshof is that it was almost continuously inhabited for 4000 years and you find remains of almost all phases. There are late Neolithic houses from different phases, wheelhouses, a broch and a palace from the 17th century which inspired Walter Scott to call the whole site Jarlshof. The largest area is a Viking settlement with the foundations of large longhouses. The different eras are so closely overlapping that it is an attractive challenge to try to figure out which parts belong to which structure and to which era. There is a brochure but it gives a very rough overview and much you …

Three different sites make this TWHS. Two are easily accessible, south of Shetland Mainland along the main road to Sumburgh lighthouse, and under one-hour drive from Lerwick, the “capital” of Shetland.

Jarlshof is the easiest site to visit; you will find there a small museum and basic information. When we visited in 2015, the entrance ticket for the site was part of the Orkney pass (good to know for those visiting Orkney islands before or after Shetland, as we did on our “tour of Scotland”). Most valuable remains are the iron age constructions with dry stones technique, but the site testifies of thousands years of human activities, including Viking evidences and ruin of a farm from seventeenth century. This is a quite compact site, laying in a nice location, immediately on the shore of the ocean. I read it can be crowded, but there were very few visitors on that morning on August 2015. The visit takes around one hour.

Old Scatness is about 1 km north, on the way back to Lerwick, and immediately before crossing one of the Shetland airport tracks (when driving northwards). This site is attended only one day per week, but the small gate at the entrance is not locked and you can get on site without any difficulty. Remains here are iron age again, and some houses have been reconstructed. It is easy to combine this visit with Jarlshof. As there is no information available on site, it is better to go …