A spring walk to Burland Broch

A perfect evening walk is out to the Burland broch near Sandwick. Brochs are among Shetland’s most interesting archaeological sites. These Iron Age towers are unique to the north and west of Scotland, and it is thought that Shetland could have had around 120 brochs (including some of the best-preserved examples anywhere).

To walk to Burland, I started at Sandwick, the largest settlement in the South Mainland. Leaving the village, I was soon on a quiet road with fields on either side. It was an early spring evening, and these fields, so quiet in the winter months, were filled with ewes and lambs.

Some of the babies were newborn, taking their first shaky steps and staying close to their mums, while others formed small groups, running and bouncing in the sun. The sky was filled with the sound of curlew and skylark. In burns and ditches, marsh marigolds bloomed.

There are several different routes to the broch. You can walk from Sandsayre or take the road past Noness, but on this day, I chose the path up the hill at the wart. From the top of the hill, the view stretches all around, a rugged seascape with steep cliffs. In the distance, I could see the distinctive cliffs of Noss and watched the NorthLink ferry making its daily journey south past Sumburgh Head.

Just a mile from the coastline is the island of Mousa, home to an impressive broch of its own. Mousa is so close that the shapes of walls and buildings can be seen quite clearly from this part of the Shetland Mainland.

Burland broch is close to the water's edge, but there are some interesting buildings to explore before you reach it. A group of houses, their walls crumbling, is what remains of the Burland crofting settlement.

The inhabitants of this area had farmed the fertile ground that surrounds it. In 1851, 43 people lived here, but by 1893 only one remained.

This history is common in Shetland’s landscapes. It is one of changing economics and settlement patterns, leaving once thriving places empty.

Although this place isn’t devoid of all life.

Curious fulmars swoop low overhead. They often choose to nest among the stones of previous human dwellings.

Sheep and lambs find shelter from the chilly north wind behind the higher walls, piles of droppings and footprints telling of their favourite places and hinting at the most recent weather conditions.

And in many ways, the stones are alive, with their own stories to tell.

Deep growths of lichen tell of the clean air quality and the length of time these walls have stood undisturbed. But there is more history to these stones, as they were once probably part of the 2000-year-old broch walls.

Shetland has few areas of good, easily cultivated land, so fertile places like this have often experienced thousands of years of human inhabitation.

Although there is plenty of good quality stone in Shetland, folk would often use what was closest and easiest to source. If you were building a community near an abandoned stone tower, that would be the sensible place to get your materials.

The broch itself was likely to have been built using stones from earlier dwellings. As I ran my hand over the salt-weathered stone, I wondered how many before me must have touched it.

Leaving the Burland settlement and walking towards the coast, you reach the broch ruins. Although brochs would have been around 10 meters tall, most appear like Burland does today, with only some stones and the basic circular shape to indicate what once stood here. But one of the most incredible things about standing in the ruins of this broch is the view over to Mousa, where the remains of a 13m high broch still stand.

You can imagine yourself back in the past, and visualise what this place would once have been. Brochs remain a mystery, with nobody quite sure why they were built in such numbers.

These towers had an inner and outer wall with a staircase between them. If you visit the one on Mousa, you can climb the original staircase right to the top.

For a long time, brochs were thought of as primarily defensive buildings. Places where shelter could be taken, behind the thick walls, to withstand a siege. More recent theories suggest they might have been more about prestige, the homes of landowners keen to construct large monuments in the landscape to show their power.

It is possible that both explanations could be partially true or that these buildings could have had other functions that we haven’t even guessed at. One feature of brochs, however, is that each one is visible to another. This can be very clearly seen when you stand in the remains of Burland and look out to Mousa.

It is thought this line of sight between buildings was to enable communication at a distance. If a threat was spotted, fires could be lit to alert the nearest neighbours, who would then light their own beacon. In the days when overland journeys in Shetland were difficult and time-consuming, this ability to communicate from a network of towers would have been very important, perhaps even lifesaving.

I find the mystery of these past lives is what makes these places so fascinating, to wonder about who lived here before and what their lives would have been like.

I love the immediacy of this history in Shetland, and how a short walk in the evening can transport you so far from everyday tasks and worries into a completely different world.

Delve into the past and discoverhow you can step back in time and marvel at world-class archaeology.