Feb2007.jpg)
Read aloud by your device's voice. It sounds different on each device.
The headland
Walls from 2500 BC to the 17th century AD stand on one headland by the sea
Jarlshof lies near the southern tip of the Shetland Mainland, overlooking the West Voe of Sumburgh. Its remains run from 2500 BC to the 17th century AD: a Bronze Age smithy, an Iron Age broch, wheelhouses, a Viking longhouse and a mediaeval farmhouse, side by side.
The storm
A late 19th century storm washed away part of the shore and showed the buildings
The site stayed largely hidden until a storm in the late 19th century washed away part of the shore. Formal excavation started in 1925, and Bronze Age relics were soon found. Digs in the 1930s by Alex Curle found the first confirmed Norse longhouse in the British Isles.
Norse houses
Seven Norse houses stood here, and no more than two were in use at one time
The largest Norse house is a rectangular chamber of 20 by 5 metres, with opposing doors, timber benches along the long sides and a hearth in the centre. The people kept sheep, cattle, pigs and ponies, and ate Atlantic cod, saithe and ling. Jarlshof holds the most extensive remains of a Viking site visible anywhere in Britain.
The narrow door
A byre door puzzled archaeologists because it looked too narrow for a cow
The door to the byre seemed too narrow to admit a cow. The mystery was solved when a byre door was excavated at Easting on Unst, narrow at the base but widening out to become cow-shaped. One hundred and fifty loom weights found here suggest that wool was an important part of life.
The name
Walter Scott coined the name Jarlshof; no Norse jarl is known to have lived here
The name Jarlshof means "Earl's Mansion" and is a coinage of Walter Scott, who visited the site in 1814. It first appears in his 1821 novel The Pirate. Excavations proved the Viking Age settlement more than a century later, although there is no evidence that a Norse jarl ever lived there.
“...the loose sand, borne on the temptestuous gales of those stormy regions, has overblown, and almost buried, the ruins of the buildings”
Walter Scott, The Pirate (1821)
In this plan
It is one of the stops on this plan.
More stories from this trip idea
The words are a retelling of the Wikipedia article Jarlshof, and are shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. They are checked against those articles, and a fact that is not in them is left out.