Shetland Islands
Today is our last day in the British Islands and began with our visit to Shetland. This northernmost group of islands in Britain is not really part of Britain at all, except in its current political affiliation. Shetland is a classic crossing point on the sea routes between Scandinavia and Britain. Since the earliest people crossed over, probably walking when the ice age had sequestered enough water to expose the continental shelf between Europe and Britain, Shetland has been home to Neolithic peoples, Bronze Age peoples, Iron Age people, Picts and Vikings, and the Shetlanders of today show these influences in their language and their very Nordic culture. The Shetland dialect is largely unintelligible even to Scots on the mainland and we struggled to understand conversations in tea rooms and on the street.
The highlight of our stop was a visit to the Jarlshof archeological site near Sumburg Head on the very southern tip of Mainland Shetland, which was occupied more or less continuously from 4000 B.C. until the 17th century. On this site are the remains of buildings and artifacts from these various cultures, right up to the ruins of the 17th century manor house built by a Mr. Bruce atop a Pictish “wheelhouse” and broch. All of these buildings are constructed of the famous Devonian Old Red Sandstone, which makes a perfect building stone for dry stone construction. A Bronze Age smithy (pictured) held artifacts indicating that the smith either was Irish or had been trained in Ireland. This bit of evidence shows that these early inhabitants not only were an advanced people who looked and thought much the way we do, but also that they were a cosmopolitan people. Certainly by the time the Vikings came to Shetland, the islands were a waypoint on their trade routes not only to Britain but also on the “stepping stone route” across the North Atlantic to the Faroes, Iceland, Greenland and North America.
Today the islands play a similar role in the transport of North Sea oil and gas around the world. So, although they may seem remote at first sight, they are now, and have been for centuries, right at the hub of commerce and trade, because for earlier Celtic, Pictish and Viking inhabitants of Shetland, as for the people today, the sea is not a barrier, but a highway which opens to the whole world.
Today is our last day in the British Islands and began with our visit to Shetland. This northernmost group of islands in Britain is not really part of Britain at all, except in its current political affiliation. Shetland is a classic crossing point on the sea routes between Scandinavia and Britain. Since the earliest people crossed over, probably walking when the ice age had sequestered enough water to expose the continental shelf between Europe and Britain, Shetland has been home to Neolithic peoples, Bronze Age peoples, Iron Age people, Picts and Vikings, and the Shetlanders of today show these influences in their language and their very Nordic culture. The Shetland dialect is largely unintelligible even to Scots on the mainland and we struggled to understand conversations in tea rooms and on the street.
The highlight of our stop was a visit to the Jarlshof archeological site near Sumburg Head on the very southern tip of Mainland Shetland, which was occupied more or less continuously from 4000 B.C. until the 17th century. On this site are the remains of buildings and artifacts from these various cultures, right up to the ruins of the 17th century manor house built by a Mr. Bruce atop a Pictish “wheelhouse” and broch. All of these buildings are constructed of the famous Devonian Old Red Sandstone, which makes a perfect building stone for dry stone construction. A Bronze Age smithy (pictured) held artifacts indicating that the smith either was Irish or had been trained in Ireland. This bit of evidence shows that these early inhabitants not only were an advanced people who looked and thought much the way we do, but also that they were a cosmopolitan people. Certainly by the time the Vikings came to Shetland, the islands were a waypoint on their trade routes not only to Britain but also on the “stepping stone route” across the North Atlantic to the Faroes, Iceland, Greenland and North America.
Today the islands play a similar role in the transport of North Sea oil and gas around the world. So, although they may seem remote at first sight, they are now, and have been for centuries, right at the hub of commerce and trade, because for earlier Celtic, Pictish and Viking inhabitants of Shetland, as for the people today, the sea is not a barrier, but a highway which opens to the whole world.
