The Zenith of Iron Age Shetland is a combination of three sites in Shetland that have applied to be on the Scottish "Tentative List" of possible nominations for the UNESCO World Heritage Programme list of sites of outstanding cultural or natural importance to the common heritage of humankind. [1] The application was made by the Shetland Amenity Trust in 2010, and in 2011 the site became one of 11 successful UK applications to join the Tentative List, three of them from Scotland. [2]
The application for consideration of "Mousa, Old Scatness and Jarlshof: The Zenith of Iron Age Shetland" as a future World Heritage Site was made after the UK government called for nominations for entries to form the UK's new Tentative List of sites. The Tentative List is used as the candidate list by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) when considering new sites for inscription. A list of 38 applications in total was announced in July 2010, after which an independent panel of experts was to assess them, with a view to paring it down and submitting it as the UK's new Tentative List to UNESCO in 2011. [3] [4]
Other Scottish sites on the application list included Arbroath Abbey; Buildings of Charles Rennie Mackintosh in Glasgow; and St Andrews, Medieval Burgh and Links, [3] [5] [6] but only the Forth Bridge and the Flow Country of Caithness and Sutherland joined Shetland in the short list for future application. [2] Secretary of State for Scotland Michael Moore said: "All these sites have something special that draws people to them and they are recognisable across the world. I am delighted that so many of Scotland's attractions have stepped forward and answered the UK government's call for world heritage status. [7] John Penrose, the Minister for Tourism & Heritage at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport also said: "what all 38 sites have in common is a wow factor and a cultural resonance that makes them real contenders...". [8]
The Shetland Amenity Trust is the formal applicant for the Zenith application. [9] Val Turner, a Trust archaeologist said: "Our sites are truly amazing. If we get World Heritage site status it will increase the numbers of visitors and help the island community value what it has. We are often seen as a peripheral and neglected area on the edge of the mainland, but we are in the heart of Iron Age and Viking history." [10] The Shetland site falls under the UNESCO definition of a "serial property" that includes component parts related because they belong to "the same historico – cultural group". [11]
Assistance to the council is available from LAWHF - Local Authorities Working Together for World Heritage. Established in 1996, this organisation represents communities across the UK "which have existing or potential World Heritage Sites within their areas." [12]
A variety of different archaeological phenomena have been found at the sites, and all three include the remains of round towers known as brochs.
The island of Mousa ( 59°59′56″N1°10′30″W / 59.999°N 1.175°W ) has been uninhabited since the 19th century and is best known for the Broch of Mousa, an Iron Age round tower which is the tallest still standing in the world [13] and amongst the best-preserved prehistoric buildings in Europe. [14] One of over 500 brochs built throughout Scotland, it is thought to have been constructed circa 100 BC. The site is managed by Historic Scotland. Mousa lies about 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) off the east coast of the Mainland some 16 kilometres (9.9 mi) north of Old Scatness. [15] According to the tentative list application the broch and environs hosts the world's largest colony of storm petrels and "nowhere else in the world are petrels so accessible to visitors". [9]
Old Scatness ( 59°52′45″N1°18′21″W / 59.8791°N 1.3057°W ) is an archeological site in the south of the Shetland Mainland, near Sumburgh Airport consisting of mediaeval, Viking, Pictish, and Bronze and Iron Age remains. It has been a settlement for thousands of years, each new generation adding buildings, and leveling off old ones. A broch was discovered in 1975, which has been dated to 300 BC. [16]
The site was first unearthed during construction work for airport improvements in the late 1970s. [17] [18] [19] The site is managed by the Shetland Amenity Trust. [20]
Jarlshof ( 59°52′09″N1°17′27″W / 59.8692°N 1.2907°W ) lies close to Old Scatness near the southern tip of the Shetland mainland and has been described as "one of the most remarkable archaeological sites ever excavated in the British Isles". [21] It contains remains dating from 2500 BC up to the 17th century.
The Bronze Age settlers left evidence of several small oval houses with thick stone walls and various artefacts including a decorated bone object. The Iron Age ruins include several different types of structure including a broch and a defensive wall around the site. The Pictish period provides various works of art including a painted pebble and a symbol stone. The Viking-age ruins make up the largest such site visible anywhere in Britain and include a longhouse; excavations provided numerous tools and a detailed insight into life in Shetland at this time. The most visible structures on the site are the walls of the Scottish period fortified manor house, which inspired the name "Jarlshof" that first appears in The Pirate , an 1821 novel by Walter Scott. The site is in the care of Historic Scotland. [22]
In archaeology, a broch is an Iron Age drystone hollow-walled structure found in Scotland. Brochs belong to the classification "complex Atlantic roundhouse" devised by Scottish archaeologists in the 1980s.
Shetland, also called the Shetland Islands, is an archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands, and Norway. It is the northernmost region of the United Kingdom.
Mousa is a small island in Shetland, Scotland, uninhabited since the nineteenth century. The island is known for the Broch of Mousa, an Iron Age round tower, and is designated as a Special Protection Area for storm-petrel breeding colonies.
The Northern Isles are a chain of islands off the north coast of mainland Scotland. The climate is cool and temperate and highly influenced by the surrounding seas. There are two main island groups: Shetland and Orkney. There are a total of 36 inhabited islands, with the fertile agricultural islands of Orkney contrasting with the more rugged Shetland islands to the north, where the economy is more dependent on fishing and the oil wealth of the surrounding seas. Both archipelagos have a developing renewable energy industry. They share a common Pictish and Norse history, and were part of the Kingdom of Norway before being absorbed into the Kingdom of Scotland in the 15th century. The islands played a significant naval role during the world wars of the 20th century.
Jarlshof is the best-known prehistoric archaeological site in Shetland, Scotland. It lies in Sumburgh, Mainland, Shetland and has been described as "one of the most remarkable archaeological sites ever excavated in the British Isles". It contains remains dating from 2500 BC up to the 17th century AD.
Fort Charlotte in the centre of Lerwick, Shetland, is an artillery fort, roughly five sided, with bastions on each of three landward corners, and half-bastions on the corners of the seaward face.
Broch of Mousa is a preserved Iron Age broch or round tower. It is on the island of Mousa in Shetland, Scotland. It is the tallest broch still standing and amongst the best-preserved prehistoric buildings in Europe. It is thought to have been constructed c. 300 BC, and is one of more than 500 brochs built in Scotland. The site is managed by Historic Environment Scotland as a scheduled monument.
The Broch of Clickimin is a large, well-preserved but restored broch in Lerwick, Shetland, Scotland. Originally built on an island in Clickimin Loch, it was approached by a stone causeway. The broch is situated within a walled enclosure and, unusually for brochs, features a large "forework" or "blockhouse" between the opening in the enclosure and the broch itself. The site is maintained by Historic Scotland. According to its excavator, John R.C. Hamilton, there were several periods of occupation of the site: Late Bronze Age farmstead, Early Iron Age farmstead, Iron Age fort, broch period, and wheelhouse settlement.
Old Scatness is an archeological site on Scat Ness, near the village of Scatness, in the parish of Dunrossness in the south end of Mainland, Shetland, Scotland, near Sumburgh Airport. It consists of medieval, Viking, Pictish, and Iron Age remains and has been a settlement for thousands of years, each new generation adding buildings, and levelling off old ones. Among the discoveries is an Iron Age broch, the Ness of Burgi fort.
Dunrossness, is the southernmost parish of Shetland, Scotland. Historically the name Dunrossness has usually referred to the area on the Shetland mainland south of Quarff. However, in 2016 there were three separate Shetland Community Councils for a) Gulberwick, Quarff and Cunningsburgh; b) Sandwick; and c) Dunrossness. The 2011 census defined Dunrossness as including everybody within the British ZE2 postal code, which goes as far north as Gulberwick. It has the best and largest area of fertile farmland of any parish in Shetland. Dunrossness includes the island of Mousa, Levenwick, St Ninian's Isle, Bigton, Scousburgh, the Lochs of Spiggie and Brow, Boddam, Quendale, Virkie, Exnaboe, Grutness, Toab, Ness of Burgi, Clumlie Broch, Scatness, Sumburgh Airport, Sumburgh Head, West Voe, the islands of Lady's Holm, Little Holm, Horse Holm island and Fair Isle.
Virkie is the most southerly district of Shetland, other than Fair Isle and is best defined as the area south of the Ward Hill in Dunrossness, also locally referred to as "below da hill", or "da laich Ness".
Scatness is a settlement on the headland of Scat Ness at the southern tip of Mainland, Shetland, Scotland, across the West Voe of Sumburgh from Sumburgh Head and close to Sumburgh Airport, the Shetland Islands' main airport. Scatness is in the parish of Dunrossness.
Prehistoric Orkney refers only to the prehistory of the Orkney archipelago of Scotland that begins with human occupation. Although some records referring to Orkney survive that were written during the Roman invasions of Scotland, “prehistory” in northern Scotland is defined as lasting until the start of Scotland's Early Historic Period.
Broch is a type of Iron Age drystone hollow-walled structure found in Scotland.
Law Ting Holm is a small promontory at the north end of the freshwater Loch of Tingwall, Mainland Shetland, Scotland. It was once an islet entirely surrounded by water, joined to the shore by a stone causeway 1.7 metres (6 ft) wide and 42.7 metres (140 ft) long. In the 1850s the levels of the loch were lowered and the holm evolved to its present form. The Loch of Tingwall is west of the town of Lerwick and has one additional island - Holm of Setter.
Prehistoric Shetland refers to the prehistoric period of the Shetland archipelago of Scotland, when it was first occupied by humans. The period prior to human settlement in Shetland is known as the geology of Scotland. Prehistory in Shetland does not end until the beginning of the Early Medieval Period in Scotland, around AD 600. More than 5,000 archaeological sites have been recorded in the Shetland Islands.
The Ness of Burgi fort is an iron-age promontory fort in the Old Scatness archaeological site on the Ness of Burgi, a narrow finger of land reaching south from the Scat Ness in the far south of the island of Mainland, Shetland in Scotland.
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