Property in Care no: 183 Designations: Scheduled Monument (90174) Taken into State care: 1925 (Guardianship) Last reviewed: 2004

HISTORIC ENVIRONMENT SCOTLAND STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE

JARLSHOF PREHISTORIC AND NORSE SETTLEMENT

We continually revise our Statements of Significance, so they may vary in length, format and level of detail. While every effort is made to keep them up to date, they should not be considered a definitive or final assessment of our properties.

Historic Environment Scotland – Scottish Charity No. SC045925 Principal Office: Longmore House, Salisbury Place, Edinburgh EH9 1SH

JARLSHOF PREHISTORIC AND NORSE SETTLEMENT

BRIEF DESCRIPTION  Jarlshof comprises a multi-period complex of well-preserved stone structures spanning from the late Neolithic (about 4500 years ago) to the 17th century AD. It was first discovered in 1897 and partly explored from 1897-1905.  It was taken into guardianship in 1925, and further excavations accompanied by consolidation followed during the mid-1920s to late-1930s and from 1949- 52.  The monument is located at the southern end of Shetland, overlooking the sheltered waters of the West Voe of Sumburgh and lying on good fertile land on the well drained lower slopes of the sandstone promontory of Sumburgh Head.  Sir Walter Scott is responsible for the site’s romantic name. CHARACTER OF THE MONUMENT Historical Overview  2500-1500 BC – The earliest occupation consisted of the fragmentary walls and hearths of two buildings and an associated midden (rubbish dump) at NE end of site.  800 BC – The first village was established by 800 BC. The village, which included a Bronze-Age smithy, was located at the E end of site The Bronze- Age houses have distinct cells formed by thick buttresses extending into the living space, and are a type that can be traced back well before 2000 BC in Shetland. A wide range of tools and pottery have survived from the village including steatite (soapstone) bowls and moulds for bronze working.  500-200 BC – The first Iron-Age village was built on top of Bronze-Age houses. The houses were round and had, at most, thin internal piers rather than the thick buttresses of the Bronze-Age houses, giving more space. Two houses have souterrains attached – underground passages perhaps used a grain- or cold-stores. The pre-Norse remains occupy the SE and SW edges of the site.  Late centuries BC to Early –mid centuries AD: After what appears to have been a break in occupation, demonstrated by deposits of sterile windblown sand, a broch was constructed on the site (part of the broch and much of the courtyard has been eroded by the sea). The courtyard wall was either contemporary with or was built very shortly after the broch. Soon after the construction of the broch and courtyard wall, and partly utilising the latter, an aisled roundhouse was erected in the angle of the courtyard, filling the space between the broch and the courtyard wall, and partly supported by the outer face of the broch. The aisled roundhouse had some echoes of broch construction and was accompanied by a byre. Next saw the erection of a series of wheelhouses (the roof is supported on radial piers, thus the name)

1/5 including one inserted into the central space of the broch, which seems to have been reduced in height at this time. At a latter date, sunken passage- houses were dug into the sand/midden deposits to the east of the broch.  Mid 9th century – Settlers from southern Norway established themselves on Shetland, and settled at Jarlshof. The Norse settlement consisted of a farmhouse, with one main room and a kitchen, a bathhouse or temple, a smithy, servants’ quarters and a byre. Over the next three centuries the settlement developed and changed although it always remained no more than a substantial farm.  Late 13th/early 14th century to early 17th century – The medieval farmhouse and barn with corn-kilns were built and used. The settlement was still essentially Norse with the changing building forms reflecting changes in house styles in Norway.  Late 16th/early 17th Century – The farmhouse was abandoned in the 16th century, when a substantial house (‘Sumburgh House’)was built immediately to the NE of the disused broch, on a mound made up of collapsed prehistoric structures. Shetland was now ruled as part of Scotland (Shetland had passed to the Scottish Crown in 1469) and in the 16th century the lordship had passed into the hands of Earl Robert Stewart, an illegitimate son of James V. Mention is made in 1592 of Earl Patrick reserving the ‘right and title of the house and fortalice lately established there on the south gable side of the Newhall, together with an adjacent yard…’ In 1604 Earl Patrick, Robert’s son, expanded the house, building a hall with cellarage to the S of the site. He was involved in a property dispute over the house with William Bruce of Symbister, which erupted into violence in 1608.  Late 17th century – The laird's house and its associated buildings had fallen into ruin by the end of the 17th century. The centre of the courtyard was used as a small cemetery after the house fell out of use. In local tradition the graves are those of shipwrecked mariners, although it is possible that the site was used a burial ground when the nearby church at Quendale was abandoned after a great sandblow in the 18th century.

Archaeological Overview  Until the excavations of the 1990s at Old Scatness, Jarlshof has provided the main chronological baseline for Shetland archaeology. Excavations at Jarlshof were undertaken by various parties, but none to modern standards. As a result the monument, particularly the precise dating of its early levels, is poorly understood. None the less, the surviving remains exhibit an extraordinary level of preservation and an extended time depth.  The full extent of the earlier excavations is not clear, although detailed research could shed light on this. The archaeology was selectively explored to different levels on different parts of the site. However, the archaeological potential must be seen as remaining extremely high. For example, geophysical survey suggests considerable archaeological deposits survive below the mound to the NW of the wheelhouses.  The extent to which the visible remains were ‘sweetened’ during the on-going consolidation is not documented. For purposes of exploration and presentation decisions were taken to remove later remains on some part of

2/5 the site (e.g. the medieval remains above the Iron-Age complex) but not on others.  The precise function of brochs is still hotly debated. The major area of debate concerns the question of the defensibility of brochs. Some recent scholars have argued that broch towers were erected to reflect the prestige and status of their inhabitants. While they may have some defensive qualities, these tend not to be significant apart from against local reivers, and their inhabitants were farmers like nearly everyone else at this time. None the less, there would have been something else, perhaps control over land, people or other resources, that singled broch tower inhabitants out from others. However, other scholars have argued that this goes too far, and that while brochs may have been prestige buildings, built to display the status of the occupants, one should not dismiss their defensive capabilities.  Jarlshof is a Norse site of international importance for understanding the process of the Norse takeover of the Northern Isles, development of the form of buildings and the economic basis of their settlement.

Artistic/Architectural Overview  The site displays an unrivalled range of surviving settlement and building forms stretching from the prehistoric period into the medieval. These include Bronze Age cellular structures, round houses of different construction and period, a broch, wheelhouses, passage houses, Norse houses and associated buildings of various periods and a substantial late medieval/earl modern laird’s house.  The development of the Norse settlement at Jarlshof has been seen as a model to demonstrate the broad pattern of architectural development throughout the Norse Atlantic colonies.  The construction on the site of Sumburgh House demonstrates a building form probably derived from Scottish building types. In its final form it consisted of a fully enclosed courtyard, with a hall range to the south, a kitchen to the north, a barn and corn drying kiln to the east and another outhouse to the west, which was removed to allow excavation of prehistoric remains.  Sumburgh House is relatively modest compared to the other building work that the Stewarts were engaged in on Shetland and Orkney. This may reflect that the house, although in the core of their estates on Shetland, was only very occasionally used by the Stewarts. Their main Shetland residence was at Scalloway, near the political centre of Shetland. For most part, the house must have functioned as the residence of earl’s representative in south Shetland.

Social Overview  No formal assessment exists. It is the only staffed Historic Scotland monument in Shetland.

Spiritual Overview  The house is at the heart of the community and increasing evidence is being adduced for how prehistoric house design, including that of broch towers,

3/5 closely reflected the inhabitants’ view of the world (cosmology). Most scholars agree that religious belief was not divorced from the domestic sphere, but we still have much to learn here.  The courtyard of Sumburgh House has been used as a burial ground.

Aesthetic Overview  The monument mostly consists of the turf-covered footings of excavated structures. The most upstanding element of the site is the late medieval/early modern hall. The extent and complexity of the site is best appreciated from the air.  The site is extremely complex, with structures overlying others. The Viking settlement is particularly difficult to understand, where the superimposed walls of buildings that were erected, modified and abandoned over centuries gives the misleading impression that Jarlshof was more than a substantial farm.

What are the major gaps in understanding of the property?  The complexity of the site and the problems resulting from a series of excavations extending over decades, all without the aid of modern archaeological techniques, does mean that sequence of development of the site and the dating of that sequence is not as secure as one would like. Further excavation could clarify some of the areas of uncertainty particularly in relation to providing dates for the broad development of the site and by providing environmental information.  Part of the site has been eroded by the sea.  The recent history and precise nature of 19th and early 20th century reconstruction of the site is not fully known.  Due to its great time depth the sequence of development at Jarlshof has tended to dominate the whole of Shetland archaeology. However, its entire sequence should not be seen as typical, or the interpretation of the sequence, correct. The use of the sequence produced at Jarlshof by Hamilton by other excavators has been misleading.  We have limited understanding of the Pictish phase at Jarlshof (the remains are slight) and it provides little information regarding the nature of the relationship between the native inhabitants of the locality and the incoming Norse. ASSESSMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE Key points  The monument demonstrates an extended time depth (although not without hiatuses) with origins in the Neolithic and occupation continuing throughout the Iron Age, into the Norse period and only ending in the late 17th century. For such a constrained site, its sequence of development is extraordinarily complex, with a range of surviving prehistoric settlement and building forms.  The site displays an unrivalled range of surviving settlement and building forms stretching from the prehistoric period into the medieval  The Norse settlement is of international significance providing a type site for Norse colonial settlements throughout the North Atlantic.

4/5  The excavations at Jarlshof have provided a wealth of artefactual evidence (now mostly in the NMS, although some artefacts are in the on-site museum and the Shetland museum) which tell us much about how people lived at Jarlshof over a time-scale of several thousand years.  Although Sumburgh House tends to be overshadowed by the prehistoric phases of the site’s occupation, it is important in its own right. It is the earliest known example of a laird’s house in Shetland, a building form that was to be widely adopted by substantial landowners and occupiers in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Associated Properties Dun Carloway; Dun Troddan; Dun Telve; Dun Dornaigil; Mousa; Gurness and Midhowe (with their associated villages) Carn Liath; Dun Beag; Clickhimin; Old Scatness.

For Norse connections - Brough of Birsay; St Mangus’ Church, Egilsay; St Magnus’ Cathedral, Kirkwall; Cubbie Roo’s Castle, Wyre; Orphir, Mainland, The Biggins, Papa Stour; Cunningsburgh Steatite Quarry.

For connections with the Stewarts - Birsay Palace and Kirkwall or Earl’s Palace Keywords Roundhouse, wheelhouse, broch, Bronze-Age, Iron-Age, Pictish, Norse, Laird’s House, Stewarts, Sir Walter Scott

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