I hope this isn’t getting boring – more ancient buildings and more birds…. and views of sea…. I was well and truly puffined out by the end of the day.
I set off south to Sumburgh Head. I was always told that “South Mainland” was boring so it felt naughty to do this and it feels even more naughty to enjoy it.
Sumburgh Head, looking across Sumburgh Airport (main airport for Shetland). Progressing south from this point was even more exciting as 1: there is a “level crossing” as the road crosses the east-west runway. And 2: the end of the runway is right next to an iron age broch.
I headed for Jarlshof, a site which has buildings all merging starting in the Stone Age (2000BC), a broch, a pictish wheelhouse (i.e. a multi-occupation house with a central communal core and the dwellings and through to viking long houses and topped off with a C17th house built for the Lord of Shetland Patrick Stewart (son of Robert, illegitimate son of James V). All the really ancient stuff was hidden under the sand (again) until exposed in a storm in C19th.
Aerial photo of the side and polystyrene demo of age: pinks = stone age, yellow and green = remains of broch and wheel houses, blue = viking, white = medieval.
Iron Age broch explanation (more brochs tomorrow…)
Wheelhouses and the broch intertwined
Viking long houses
The vikings brought, to Shetland, the idea of rectangular building rather than circles.
The modest house of Patrick Stewart above the stone age dwellings
The name Jarlshof was made up by Robert Louis Stevenson (grandson of the Lighthouse Stevenson) in one of is books, don’t know the name of the book – about pirates?
Sumburgh Head
From Jarlshof I walked to the lighthouse (another Stevenson one) which is also an RSPB reserve.
The fog horn mechanism
And that is where I saw puffins – nearer. I’ve seen them “beakings”, sitting on nest (puffincam); all I need to see now is puffins with sand eels in their mouths and puffins mating.
Puffin cam
Puffin
That’s enough puffins
How about a Shetland Wren?
and another wren.
So how about a black bunny?
I’d forgotten about the rabbits in Shetland – when you come over the brow of a hill the whole hillside seems to be on the move – the hills are alive with, not the sound of music, but rabbits – not just boring ordinary rabbits, black ones which don’t have white scuts. There were loads of rabbits back in 1975 too and I recall Sandy going off into the dusk (at about 11.30 or 12), with a roll up in the corner of his mouth and a shotgun over his shoulder promising rabbit for breakfast, looking for all the world just like Clint Eastwood. We didn’t get rabbit but I think Maxi had been out fishing that night so we had fresh mackerel instead.
A lamb talking to its best friend
I walked back to the Van via one of the Early Warning Stations on Shetland
The water is so clear you can see seals under water
Left - Jarshof. Middle - The Van. Right – Sumburgh Hotel
Sumburgh Airport
Anywhere else this would be considered an art installation
I got back to the Van at 5. Everything closes down at 5. So I went “pootling” around and found the Loch of Spiggie, fresh water loch with good fishing, the sea is just behind me, good place for otters, still no sighting. There is a Spiggie Hotel
Loch of Spiggie
North of the Loch of Spiggie is St Ninian’s Isle. This used to be an island but is now attached by a tombolo, a spit of sand which is built up on both sides by the sea. The tombolo doesn’t get covered by the tide so I walked around St Ninian’s Isle
Not a good photo of the tombolo.
St Ninian’s chapel looking back; Pictish treasure was found here in 1958
An orchid with spotty leaves
Looking towards Foula, usually covered in cloud. Now the most isolated inhabited island in the British Isles, 14 miles
Seals
There was a place to park overlooking St Ninian’s Isle so I stayed the night there – my first night “wild” camping.
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