Jarlshof

Jarlshof is one of the most remarkable archaeological sites in the British Isles, located near the southern tip of Shetland, Scotland. It preserves over 4,000 years of continuous settlement from around 2700 BC to the 1600s AD, spanning Neolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Age, Pictish, Norse, and medieval periods. Key structures include a Bronze Age smithy, an Iron Age broch, Pictish wheelhouses, Viking longhouses, and a 16th-century laird's house. The site was hidden under sand for centuries until storms revealed it in the 1890s, with formal excavations beginning in 1925.