OLDER THAN THE PYRAMIDS: SHETLAND

“Now that my ladder’s gone/I must lie down where all my ladders start/In the foul rag and bone shop of the heart” – WB Yeats, as quoted by Detective Perez on a recent episode of the TV show Shetland

The highest winds on record on the Mainland island of Shetland were 197 mph. Actually, it was windier than that, but the windspeed was not recorded because the equipment blew away.

The beauty of Shetland

That’s Shetland. Beautiful in a haunting way. Windy. The famous Shetland ponies are low to the ground so they don’t blow away. At least that seems to be the local lore.

Life is old here. A sea-side site on Mainland (that’s the name of the island among the Shetland Islands on which the majority of the populace lives) called Jarlshof contains the remains of civilizations built atop other civilizations dating from 2700 BC to 1600 AD. That’s 4300 years of succeeding generations using the sites and homes of previous generations to build more modern structures.

Remains of Neolithic settlement, pre-dating Stonehenge

 It largely came to an end around the early 1600s, when Earl Patrick Stewart, who was widely despised for his tyrannical rule over the Shetland and Orkney Islands—including for excessive taxation—was arrested for failing to pay taxes to the King. That was considered treason in those days, and resulted in his beheading. His home at Jarlshof then fell into disrepair, and eventually crumbled.

Remains of the Earl's house

 Underneath and surrounding his home were remains of villages from the Neolithic period, the bronze age, the iron age, the Pict period, the Viking period, and the Scottish period. Over the ages, many of the structures had fallen into the encroaching seas, while buildups of land covered much of the rest, with only the tower from the earl’s home still visible. In the late 1800s, a storm uncovered some of the remains, and what is considered the most important archaeological site in the British Isles was found.

circa 500 BC

 Today, farmers graze their sheep next to the site. To get there, you have to drive over the runway of the local airport (it’s important to look both ways before crossing). But it is worth braving airplanes and sheep dip to visit.

Shetland itself is part of Scotland, which in turn is part of the United Kingdom. Farming, fishing, and wool are its main products. It has achieved a bit of international fame recently via a BBC television mystery series named Shetland. The series is filmed here, and is a favorite topic of the local people, many of whom have appeared as extras on the series. But they will be quick to tell you that only one of the lead actors is a native Shetlander and, more importantly, people are not constantly getting murdered in these islands. In fact, there has been only one murder in recent memory there.

Familiar scenery from the TV series

One of the threads running through this trip has been WWII, the scars of which still throb in Europe. Shetland takes great pride in its role in the form of the Shetland Bus, a kind of furtive boat shuttle bringing refugees from occupied Norway and sending back supplies, arms, and assistance for the Resistance in Norway.

No Littering