Day 3 - Archaeological Mother Lode
From Lerwick, we head south on Mainland – an incongruent name for an island, except that it dwarfs the other Shetland Islands in size and population. The southern end of Mainland is also a mother lode of archaeological finds. Fortifications, houses, and even complete villages from ages past have been found along the shoreline and in the hillsides of the island, all of them marked by significant stonework that has endured until the present day.
Just outside of Lerwick on the way to points south, Clickimin Broch, a circular fortification, sits on the southern edge of Clickimin Loch.
The first building at the site (a small piece of land that juts onto the lake), is thought to have been a Bronze Age house. In the Iron Age, the site was expanded with a defensive ring wall and a tower.
Now, visitors can climb up to the second level of the circular tower, and the adventurous can scramble up to the third level, look out over Clickimin Loch, and wonder how much higher the mountains might have been thousands of years ago.
Further south, at the tip of the island, is Jarlshof – an archaeological site with finds dating as far back as the Stone Age.
Unseen until about a hundred years ago, when storms and erosion revealed hints of stonework, the site contains at least six levels dating back 4,000 years. Nearby is another dig site, Old Scatness, with many preserved Iron Age buildings. While the walls at Jarlshof have long ago crumbled, some at Old Scatness still stand to nearly their full height. Still, the term "height" can be a bit deceiving; from the size of doorways that remain, it is clear that the original inhabitants, whether Picts or other tribes, were a diminutive people.
Moving closer to the present day, the Crofthouse Museum is a restored farmhouse that shows life as it would have been a hundred years ago on the island. A tiny bedroom houses "box beds," wooden boxes raised off the ground that were shuttered for protection from the wind and cold for sleeping. In the low-ceilinged kitchen, a peat fire fills the space with an earthy smell. Peat fell out of favour with the convenience of gas and oil heat in the mid-1900s, but is now becoming more popular due to the cost of oil.
"Now that oil is more expensive, everyone's turning back to peat," Alastair tells us. It takes about six weeks from the time peat is cut to the time it can be burned, and the hills surrounding Lerwick are rich with this resource, making it a nearly ideal source of fuel for the islands.
View interactive map of the voyage
Read the other articles:
Days 7-11 Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and journey's end
Day 5 - Iceland: Tour, Geology and Saga Museum
Day 4 - Cabin Fever on the HIGH Seas
Day 3 - Ruins and Treasure Hoards
Day 3 - Tastes of Shetland
Day 3 - Archaeological Mother Lode (you are here)
Day 3 - Out and about in Lerwick
Day 3 - Lerwick town and harbour
Day 1 - Katherine's first impressions
Day 0 - Outfitting the expedition
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Kirsten - I feel your pain! Don’t you feel discriminated against for having a MAC? Don’t people who wire hotels and cruise ships know there is more than one platform out there? I hope your travel companions will share their PC’s with you so we can hear your perspective too!