Wheel houses, Jarlshof. First century CE (late Iron Age).

I don't know much about these. When I go travelling in Australia, I look at every building in terms of when it was built/modified, assess everything I read against what I know, fit everything it into an existing framework. When I was planning to travel overseas, I looked forward to being able to just walk around and look at things and not having to work out where they fitted in the bigger picture.

And I did! For the first week, I wandered around Shetland just looking at cool things and thinking they were cool. Jarlshof is from that first week.

The onsite information panel says

"Wheelhouses are unique to the Northern and Western Isles of Scotland. Inside, it's easy to see how the buildings got their name. The structure is circular, with the different compartments resembling the spokes of a wheel. We are not sure how the space in the house was used. The central area was probably communal, while the compartments may have been private or areas for particular tasks. It would have been dark inside, as the roof was covered with turf. A central hearth fire and simple oil lamps would have provided a low level of light."

#ironage #jarlshof #shetland #oldhouses #reallyoldhouses