About
Jarlshof stands at the southern tip of Shetland, on a headland above the sea at Sumburgh, and presents visitors with the most extraordinary compressed chronicle of human settlement anywhere in the British Isles. In a single coastal site exposed by violent storms in the late 19th century, 4,000 years of continuous human occupation are laid bare — Bronze Age oval houses from around 1800 BC, Iron Age roundhouses, an Iron Age broch tower, Norse longhouses from the 9th and 10th centuries, a Norse farmstead in use through the medieval period, a 16th-century laird's house, and a 17th-century addition — all visible in a single visit and all occupying essentially the same ground. No other known site in northern Europe presents such a complete and legible sequence of occupation from the Bronze Age to the post-medieval period.
The name Jarlshof — 'earl's mansion' in Old Norse — was invented by Sir Walter Scott, who used the site in his 1821 novel 'The Pirate' and needed a suitably Norse-sounding name for the ruined buildings he encountered there. The original name of the settlement is not known. The site was not scientifically excavated until the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when storms cut into the headland and exposed the layers of occupation that had been sealed beneath centuries of windblown sand.
The Bronze Age oval houses date to around 1800 BC and represent some of the earliest permanent stone-built dwellings known in Scotland. The Iron Age complex includes not only roundhouses but a well-preserved broch — a type of drystone tower unique to Scotland — with surviving walls several courses high. The Norse longhouses, dated by finds of characteristic Viking-age artefacts, show exactly how Norwegian settlers established their farms in Shetland from the 9th century, organising their households around the long central fire of the longhouse surrounded by byres for cattle and storage rooms.
Jarlshof is managed by Historic Environment Scotland and has an excellent small visitor centre with finds displays and interpretive material. It sits adjacent to Sumburgh Airport at the southernmost tip of Shetland, a short drive from the spectacular RSPB reserve at Sumburgh Head where puffins, gannets, and great skuas breed in large numbers.
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Plan Your Visit
💡 Visitor Tips
- Reaching Shetland requires a ferry or flight. NorthLink overnight ferry from Aberdeen to Lerwick (12 hours) is the standard car route; Loganair flies from Edinburgh/Glasgow/Aberdeen to Sumburgh Airport (1 hour). Sumburgh Airport is immediately adjacent to Jarlshof — it's the first site you can visit on arrival.
- A car is essential for exploring Shetland's heritage sites. Car hire is available at Sumburgh Airport and in Lerwick; book in advance.
- Combine Jarlshof with a walk to Sumburgh Head RSPB reserve (10 min walk from the site) for puffin and seabird watching — one of the best puffin experiences in Britain. May–August is best.
- Allow 1.5–2 hours for Jarlshof itself. A half-day combining the site, Sumburgh Head, and the Old Scatness Iron Age village (adjacent, check opening season) is ideal.
- Old Scatness broch and village (Shetland Amenity Trust, near Jarlshof) is a companion site with more Iron Age and Norse material — check whether it's open during your visit.
- There is no café at Jarlshof — bring food and drink. The Sumburgh Hotel (5 min drive) serves food and is a reasonable option nearby.
- Check HES website for current opening hours before making the journey from Lerwick — reduced winter hours apply.
Highlights
4,000 Years in a Single Walk
The experience that makes Jarlshof unique among archaeological sites in Britain is the ability to walk through 4,000 years of occupation in a single visit, each phase of settlement overlapping and succeeding the previous. Starting with the oval Bronze Age houses (c. 1800 BC) at the oldest end of the site, visitors pass through Iron Age roundhouses, the broch, Norse longhouses, medieval farmsteads, and a 16th-century laird's house in a continuous spatial progression.
Each layer is clearly identified and interpreted, and the physical proximity of the different periods — sometimes within metres of each other — makes the long continuity of human habitation at this coastal location tangible and moving.
The Norse Longhouses — Viking Shetland
The Norse occupation of Jarlshof is one of the best-documented and most completely excavated examples of Viking-age settlement in Scotland. The longhouses date from the 9th century, when Norwegian settlers colonised Shetland (apparently displacing or absorbing the existing Pictish population), and continued in use through the 10th and 11th centuries.
The characteristic longhouse plan — a long central hall with a floor hearth, flanked by byres for cattle on one side and storage areas on the other — is clearly visible in the excavated foundations.
Finds from the Norse levels include combs of antler and bone, bronze pins, iron knives, steatite (soapstone) vessels quarried locally, and fragments of Norse-type pottery.
The Iron Age Broch
The broch at Jarlshof is one of the better-preserved examples of this distinctively Scottish architectural form. Brochs are drystone towers — hollow-walled, with internal galleries and stairways within the wall thickness — that were built in large numbers across northern and western Scotland during the Iron Age (c.
200 BC to AD 200).
They are found only in Scotland and are one of the most remarkable indigenous architectural achievements of prehistoric Europe. The Jarlshof broch has walls surviving to several courses, with the intra-mural galleries partly visible, and the circular plan and construction method are clearly legible.
The broch was subsequently surrounded by later Iron Age wheelhouses built within and around its remains.
Sir Walter Scott and the Name 'Jarlshof'
The name Jarlshof is a literary invention. When Sir Walter Scott visited Shetland in 1814 as part of the Lighthouse Commissioners' tour (during which he collected material for what became 'The Pirate', published 1821), he encountered the ruins of the laird's house at Sumburgh and gave them the atmospheric Norse name 'Jarlshof' (Old Norse for 'Earl's Court').
The original name of the settlement is not recorded.
Scott's novel made 'Jarlshof' famous in literary circles, but the ruins were not scientifically investigated until late Victorian storms cut into the headland and began exposing the underlying prehistoric and Norse layers that were to prove so extraordinary.
Collections
Jarlshof — Four Thousand Years of Settlement
Interpretive display in the visitor centre covering all occupation phases from Bronze Age to post-medieval, with original finds, scale models, and site plans.
Current Exhibitions
No current exhibitions. Please check the museum website for updates.