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Ancient monument

Jarlshof

Sumburgh, Shetland

Four thousand years of homes on one Shetland shore.

At Jarlshof, people lived on the same spot for over four thousand years. There are Bronze Age houses, an Iron Age broch, wheelhouses, Viking longhouses and a medieval farmhouse.

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When
c. 2500 BC–1600s AD
Where
59.8690, -1.2900
Group
Circles & monuments

Visiting

Historic Environment Scotland, next to Sumburgh airport.

Cover of The Ledger of Lost Britain by Cale Mills
From the book

The Ledger of Lost Britain

It is called Jarlshof, a name made up by Walter Scott, who visited in 1814. It is translated as Earl’s Mansion, though there is no evidence that a Norse jarl ever lived there.

The Romans arrived in AD 43. For most people that is where the history of Britain begins. But by the time the legions landed, people had already been living on these islands for thousands of years. They had hunted, farmed, mined flint, dragged stones across the country, raised a hill by hand, and buried their dead in great tombs. They left no written words. What they left was the ground itself. Every place in this book can be visited, or has been dug up, or is in a museum.

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