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Standing stones
in Shetland.

It’s 20:57 in Shetland.
Shetland Islands

Brochs from Clickimin to Culswick.

Shetland is broch country, and its Iron Age towers turn up by lochs, on headlands and on little islands. On Mousa, a short boat ride from Sandwick, a broch built around 300 BC still stands 13 metres tall, with a stair climbing inside its wall. Another stands by a loch on the edge of Lerwick, and one more on a lonely West Mainland headland, its doorway topped by a great triangular lintel. Near Sumburgh, a whole Iron Age village appeared when the airport road was cut. On Fetlar, a Bronze Age ring of stones stands on the moor. The Mousa boat runs in summer, so book a place ahead.

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Stone circle of the day17 hours ago

Scatness Broch.

The excavated broch and village at Old Scatness, with a visitor centre and guided tours.

Read about it
Did you know13 hours agoWritten byLaurie GoodladRead Laurie’s piece

Stanydale Temple, a 4,000-year-old site in Shetland's West Mainland, still puzzles archaeologists, who are unsure what it was for.

‘On the approaches to Stanydale, there are two standing stones, demarcating a passage of sorts, where the sun’s rays will pass through and into the back of the temple at sunrise on the equinox. This is something that I was keen to experience, so I went on a showery March morning to meet the dawn of the equinox. It was an almost otherworldly experience; that moment as dawn arrives and the world stops, where just for a moment everything falls silent.’

Written byLaurie GoodladRead Laurie’s piecePhotograph: Laurie GoodladSee Stanydale Temple · Shetland Islands
Lunch9 hours agoShetland IslandsFjarå Café Bar10.5 milesShetland IslandsPeerie Shop Café11.0 milesShetland IslandsNo88 Kitchen and Bar11.0 miles

Lunch near Mousa Broch.

The three good places closest to it: Fjarå Café Bar, Peerie Shop Café and No88 Kitchen and Bar.

See Mousa Broch
Did you know6 hours ago

Mousa Broch, on the small island of Mousa in Shetland, is the tallest broch still standing, rising 13.3 metres high.

A broch is an Iron Age stone tower, and Mousa's is thought to have been built around 300 BC. It is among the best-preserved prehistoric buildings in Europe, and it is mentioned in two Norse sagas, Egil's Saga and the Orkneyinga Saga. You reach it by boat from Sandwick, about 14 miles south of Lerwick. Storm petrels, small seabirds, breed in its stone walls, and the broch is well known among birdwatchers, who see them best after dark.

See Mousa Broch · Shetland Islands
Did you know2 hours agoWritten byLaurie GoodladRead Laurie’s piece

Mousa, an uninhabited island off Shetland's east coast, is as good for its seabirds as it is for its 2,000-year-old broch.

‘Mousa has one of the largest colonies of storm petrels in the UK. These tiny seabirds can be seen on an evening tour to the isle. Mousa is also home to a colony of Arctic terns and skuas. The enigmatic black guillemot is usually seen nesting in the 2,000-year-old broch, and the Mill Loch is a fantastic place to see red-throated divers.’

Written byLaurie GoodladRead Laurie’s piecePhotograph: Laurie GoodladSee Mousa Broch · Shetland Islands
Standing stonesJust now

Clickimin Broch.

An Iron Age broch on the shore of Clickimin Loch at the edge of Lerwick, with a thousand years of settlement around it.

See the place

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