The programmes

Grid reference: HP 4781 0338

Filmed 5-19 October 2003, first screened 1 August 2004

Four miles west of the end of the last road at the northernmost point of Yell, the second-biggest of the Shetland Islands, is Burgi Geos. Perched on a narrow outcrop of rock on the edge of 60-metre sheer cliffs, this collection of dry stone walls and scattered stones is generally thought of as an Iron Age blockhouse fortification.

The site was surveyed by the archaeologist, Raymond Lamb, during his 1973 study of Shetland sites, but it has never been excavated. Although similar sites are found scattered throughout the Shetland Islands very little is known about any of them. Burgi Geos is not only the most remote, but is also considered to be the most unusual example of this type of building found anywhere in the islands.

With half of the structure having already slipped into the sea, however, time is running out to unravel the enigma. The Extreme Archaeology team conducted the first archaeological investigation of the site. The questions they tried to answer included who would have lived in such a precarious position, why was it abandoned and when?