This is the sixth of the “Travels Down Memory Lane Series”. Over the last couple of years, there hasn’t been an opportunity for holidays away. So I decided to look at some of the posts I’d planned to write, and for various reasons, I hadn’t.
Nothing is as much fun as walking down memory lane and revisiting and sharing the photographs and journals from our travels. A wonderful visit to Jarlshof, Shetland, on my 50th birthday!
After visiting Sumburgh Lighthouse, we had lunch in the Sumburgh Hotel Lounge. It was delicious, and I ate Haddock and Chips… No one makes fish and chips like the Scottish, and the Shetland fish and chips are even better!
The hotel was next door to Jarlshof, so that was our next destination…
Jarlshof was incredibly special. I loved everything about it. The stones. The history.
It was covered in sand until the 1880s when a lousy storm washed it away, and the site was first excavated.
People have been living on the site looking at that view for 4000 years, from the prehistoric Stone Age and Bronze Age to the laird in the 1660s.
They were all built upon each other without the new homestead even knowing about the previous one.
There was an extraordinary atmosphere there. We had it almost to ourselves as a tour bus was leaving when we were arriving.
Neil listened to the taped tour, but I just wandered, absorbing the atmosphere of the place, taking photographs, and getting a sense of the place.
On our way home, we bought some wood and drove around Spiggie Loch. When we got home, we had a snack, and I continued knitting the Fairisle Tam in a more straightforward colour combination than my other one.
It is looking pretty. It is Kate Davies’s design from her Colours of Shetland but with added tweaks.
My version of the Scatness Tam is more of a slouch hat, whereas hers is a traditionally shaped tam, so I changed the main repeat to 26 stitches instead of a 24-stitch one.
What an amazing place and what great photos. I have always wanted to visit Shetland and particularly Jarlshof so thank you for sharing your visit.
Did you follow virtual Shetland wool week this year ? Unfortunately I was ill in hospital and missed it. I so enjoyed it last year.