Jacob Johorasen’s House
On a hillside above Balta Sound in Unst lies Hamar 1, described before excavation as “the best preserved longhouse in Scotland”. This Viking age house is also known locally as Jacob Johorasen’s house.
Excavations in the mid-2000s revealed traces of an earlier sunken “pit-house” beneath the visible stone walls, cut 25–30cm into the bedrock. Pit-houses were among the earliest dwellings built by Vikings when they settled in Iceland, where scholars suggest they were favoured as a quick to build shelter during the first phase of settlement. The closest parallels in Norway date from the ninth century onwards. If I’ve understood correctly, this could hint that the pit-house at Hamar 1 is from the earliest phase of Norse settlement in Shetland.
The later longhouse, visible in the photo above, comprises a living space at one end, and possibly a byre at the other. A ditch was dug into the bedrock around the upper end of the house to drain away water to help keep the interior dry.
Walking through the stone outlines of Hamar 1 today, it takes imagination to see the smoke-filled rooms and hear the sounds of everyday Norse life, and to picture the longships sailing in the sound below.
More than sixty longhouses have been found in Unst – the highest density of rural Viking sites anywhere, including Scandinavia. The Shetland Amenity Trust has also built a full-scale replica longhouse at Brookpoint, where you can get a sense of how a longhouse might have appeared in its heyday.
More information about the Hamar Longhouse:
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