Broch of Mousa (or Mousa Broch) is an exceptionally well preserved example of an Iron Age broch or round tower in not just Shetland or Scotland but Europe. It is built of dry stone with no mortar. At 13.3m high and accessible via a single entrance at ground level, a visitor may ascend by the original intramural staircase to an open walkway at the very top, providing a commanding view all around. Mousa Broch was a massive construction for its time and as well its remote location would likely explain its excellent state of preservation.
It is now considered that brochs were both defensive and prestigious buildings built in Shetland around 400-200BC.
Mousa Broch is located on the western shore of the island of Mousa and is accessible by boat from Sandwick, Shetland, 14 miles south of Lerwick. It stands on the flat rock surface of a low promontory near the shore overlooking Mousa Sound.
Old Scatness is the most recent archaeological site on Shetland and is a stone’s through away from the runway of Sumburgh Airport. It comprises several epochs of Shetland history, namely Medieval, Viking, Pictish and iron Age, having been a settlement for thousands...
Jarlshof has presented evidence of nearly 5,000 years of human activity on the one site whose dramatic location on a headland overlooking the West Voe of Sumburgh was revealed after a storm in the 1890s.
Archaeologists have since discovered its secrets in the...
You might be lucky enough to gain exclusive access to Scalloway Castle by retrieving the keys from Scalloway Museum or the local hotel. You might like to imagine yourself as the Earl of Orkney and Shetland but for the fact that the position was held by the Stewart...
Ness of Burgi is an intriguing Iron Age ruin. Situated on a narrow promontory, the site is dominated by a so-called ‘blockhouse fort’ – a rare type of monument of which there are only three confirmed examples, all in Shetland. The blockhouse is bordered on three...