Lerwick; Monday, 08 August, 2005

Off to the Viking bus station to catch the bus to the Airport. Well not completely (I still have another two days left!) On the edge of the airport archaeologists have uncovered remains of and Iron Age settlement, just a mile from the site of another settlement, and within sight of three other pre-historic farmsteads. The site at the airport is still being uncovered with more being found each year. The Old Scatness visitors centre explains what has been discovered at the site and what they hope to continue to find.

After watching an introductory visit you are taken on a tour of the site by people who have been involved in the digging, and then you are shown reconstruction's on the buildings as they think they would have looked, including a costumed guide telling you about how people would have lived. On a misty, windy, damp and chilly day, it's amazing how homely and comfortable the reconstruction's feel.

A mile further down the coast (or at the other end of the runway, which ever way you want to look at it) is Jarlshof (J pronounced as a Y). Re-discovered after ferocious storms ripped the top layers of soil off some of the site just over 100 years ago, this is a massive site with examples of buildings that were in almost constant inhabitation from the early Bronze Age, through Iron age, the Picts, Vikings and up to the 17th century. The most recent building (and the only one which was known about before the storm) is another residence of Earl Patrick Stewart (of Scalloway castle fame).

Beyond Jarlshof the land rises steeply (which makes landing at the airport interesting) to Sumburgh head, the very southern tip of the islands, before falling away as cliffs at a point where the North Sea and Atlantic meet.

The cliffs provide a home to hundreds of thousands of birds, and have now been turned into an RSPB protected nature reserve. Despite the hike up to the top of the hill, next to the lighthouse that protects the rocks, the views are stunning. All the signs said that by early August most of the birds have left, but even today there were still a few around, including those I had come to see, the Puffins.

After spending quite some time, and only realising as I turned to leave how cold I had got, I wandered back down the hill paths to Sumburgh to catch the early evening (or penultimate as it is!) bus back into Lerwick.