Shetland is the destination for the 2026 UHI Archaeology Institute Easter field trip.
A group of undergraduate and postgraduate students arrived on Wednesday for the three-day excursion, which will see them shown around some of the islands’ archaeological sites by Shetland-based lecturer Dr Simon Clarke and accompanied by Professor Jane Downes and Dr Julia Cussans.
Day one saw the group taken to the Jarlshof prehistoric and Norse settlement site, the Old Scatness broch and Iron Age village, St Ninian’s Isle and the Catpund steatite (soapstone) quarry.
At the Catpund steatite quarry. (📷 Jane Downes/Julia Cussans)
The site is the largest soapstone quarry in Britain and one of the largest in the world. The surrounding area shows evidence of use from the Neolithic, with the main period of exploitation likely to have been during the Norse period, with Catpund being a major main source of steatite west of the North Sea.
The Jarlshof multi-period site. (📷 Jane Downes/Julia Cussans)
The two-hectare site at Jarlshof contains evidence of human occupation from 3600BC to the early modern period – the remains dating from the Neolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Age, Norse Settlement, and Late Medieval Period.
Nearby, the Old Scatness Iron Age broch and village was discovered in 1975. Excavations, 20 years later, revealed a Middle Iron Age broch and post-broch village dating to 400-200BC, with Pictish and Viking buildings showing the site was was occupied continuously to the Medieval period.
St Ninian’s Isle. (📷 Jane Downes/Julia Cussans)
St Ninian’s Isle, a small tidal island connected to the Mainland of Shetland by UK’s largest tombolo beach. is home to the ruins of a 12th-century chapel dedicated to Saint Ninian. It was here that a spectacular Pictish silver hoard was found in 1958. Consisting of 28 silver and silver-gilt objects, the artefacts date to the second half of the eighth century.
Our thanks to NorthLink Ferries for sponsoring the trip.
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