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This is a photo of the scheduled monument number, By Mustang Joe,

Top 10 Best Facts about the Jarlshof Prehistoric & Norse Settlement

Jarlshof Prehistoric and Norse settlements are very important and inspirational archaeological sites in Scotland. It is located at Sumburgh Head near the southern tip of mainland Shetland. 

The site has ancient settlements which cover more than 4000 years of human history. It also has a lot of archaeological treasures, which include the late Neolithic houses, a Bronze Age Village, an Iron Age broch and wheelhouses, a Norse Longhouse, a medieval farmstead, and a 16thcentury laird’s house.

Some of the facts about Jarlshof prehistoric and Norse  settlement include the following;

2. The site was occupied 4000 years ago

The exterior of the wheelhouses at Jarlshof, By Island hopper –

Jarlshof Prehistoric and Norse settlements are worth visiting to see the ancient settlement that held 4000 years of human history.  It is said that it was the first home to Neolithic people at around 2700 B.C. The site remained to use till 1600.

The site includes some of the remains of the ancient that is found in the prehistoric settlement. They are oval-shaped bronze age houses, iron age broch and wheelhouses, and Norse Longhouse and a medieval farmstead, and even a laird’s house. All these remains show the different periods of the settlements.

3. Walter Scott visits Jarlshof 

Sir Walter Scott named the site Jarlshof, meaning Earl House while he was writing his novel The pirate in1882. He named it Earl house referring to a fictional house that was based on the 16th-century laird’s house, the Old House of Sumburgh, that towers over the prehistoric remain today.

He visited the place in 1814 with the famous Stevenson brothers who were planning the lighthouse at Sumburgh Head.

4. The site was discovered after a violent storm in the 1890s

In the 1890s the violent storm revealed the hidden site by the coastal erosion, and the landowner John Bruce Sumburgh excavated the area and handed it over to the state in 1925 after he realized the importance of the site.

After 50 years of excavation, it revealed a remarkable sequence of the stone structures that is still visible today. Archaeologists J.R.C work added significantly to our knowledge of how the past societies lived, worked, and ate since he is the one who excavated the site 

5 Jarlshof prehistoric and Norse settlements different  unique architectures

Jarlshof with West Voe of Sumburgh beyond, By Bob Embleton,

The Jarlshof site shows a unique range of surviving settlements and build forms, that are stretching from the prehistoric period into the medieval.

They may include the bronze age cellular structures, roundhouses of different construction and period, a broch, wheelhouses, passage houses, Norse houses, and various buildings associated with different periods of the late or early medieval period.

The development of the Norse settlement is considered a model that is used to demonstrate the broad pattern of architectural development throughout the Norse Atlantic colonies.

6. Vikings explored and settled at Jarlshof

The gateway for the Viking exploration was at the northern tip of Scotland, Shetland. The Vikings settled at the jarls of since the place names and dialect direct us today to their settlements and the archaeological remains are still visible in the landscape.

The most extensive archaeological evidence of the Viking settlement can be seen either at the end of the island in the south or north of the Jarlshof. There are pre-Viking buildings at Jarlshof and close by at Old Scatness, where the Viking objects are contained.

7. There might be remote ancestors at Jarlshof

The first people to reach Shetland are said to have landed near Jarlshof, about 5,000  to 6000 years ago. Considering that there are fragments of years ago dwelling at Jarlshof and are dating from 2700 BC. Some of the substantial remain date from the bronze age settlements which are at least 2000BC.

The bronze age remains to include the following;

•  the later bronze age smithy was built around 800BC, one of the earliest houses.
• the number of houses with the living space divided up into distinctive cells, formed by buttresses or piers

8. It was an old house of Sumburgh

The Old House of Sumburgh dating from the early 17th century, By Ronnie Robertson,

Jarlshof house was built during the Scottish period. It is an original medieval stone farmhouse, which was converted into a fortified house by Robert Stewart, during the 16th century after Scotland annexed Shetland.

The building was later named “New Hall” and in the early 17the century Patrick Stewart modernized it and renamed it the ”Old House of Sumburgh”

The building was subsequently abandoned in the 17th century and the structure is now known as ”The Laird’s house and ”Stewart Mansion”.

9. The Jarlshof monument access

The site is down a steep, about 8m-long ramp and 150m along a wide grass drive that ends in a level gravel path. The paths around the Jarlshof sites are gravel and bound stone.

There are also level changes and protruding archaeological remains. Some of which include the Iron Age buildings, they have narrow and low entrances, the wheelhouse is down with uneven stone steps that have no handrail and the top of the laird’s house is reached via a modern, meta; spiral staircase with a handrail.

10 . Several excavations took place

The interior of a Jarlshof wheelhouse showing bays between the stone piers, By Island hopper –

With the help and support of the landowner, John Bruce between1897 and 1906 several excavations were undertaken in stages. He even installed the first coastal defences. Later on, in 1925 the site was given to the state.

In 1950, another series of excavations took place, directed by John R C Hamilton, which led to the publication, and in 1956 a comprehensive account of the site was then understood. In 1939 when the first experiments in radiocarbon began and the technique was widely available after Hamilton had completed his work.

To fill in the gaps about the Jarlshof small-scale excavations were undertaken in 2004 towards the north of the site by Stephen J Dockril, Julie M Bond, and Collen E Betty. The results dated the Neolithic settlement period.