Historic Scotland & National Trust for Scotland places in Shetland

Iron Age broch and blockhouse on a former island in the Loch of Clickimin on the edge of Lerwick, settled from 1000 BC to AD 500, with a carved footprint stone on the causeway; free, daily hours, no parking at the site.

A pentagonal artillery fort of the 1660s and 1781 above Lerwick harbour, with replica guns on its battery facing Bressay Sound; free, grounds open 10:00 - 16:00, a short walk from Commercial Street.

More than 4,000 years of settlement on one Shetland headland: Bronze Age houses, an Iron Age broch and wheelhouses, a Viking longhouse and the laird's Old House of Sumburgh; adult £8.50, half price in the first EH year.

Scotland's tallest and best-preserved broch, about 13 metres high, on the uninhabited island of Mousa off Shetland, reached by the seasonal Mousa Boat from Sandwick; free entry, the boat is charged, closed until April 2027.

Britain's northernmost castle, a Z-plan tower house of 1598 on Unst with corner turrets and a rhyming inscription over the door; free, open all year, reached by two council ferries via Yell; take a torch.

A rare Iron Age blockhouse fort with corbelled cells on a cliff-bound promontory at Scatness, near Sumburgh; free and open all year, a 1 km walk ending in a rocky scramble.

Shetland's only truly megalithic building, a great oval hall of boulders 4,000 to 5,000 years old in the moors near Bixter; free, open all year, about 700 metres across boggy ground from a small car park.

Britain's most remote inhabited island, between Shetland and Orkney, famed for migrant birds, seabird cliffs and Fair Isle knitting; by mail boat from Grutness or plane from Tingwall.

Britain's northernmost islands, where the Trust holds Halligarth wood, west-coast cliffs and beaches on Unst and croft land on otter-rich Yell; Hermaness is next door.