Although things might be a little different on your visit, you can still enjoy exploring Mousa Broch.
Find out more about this historic place below.
Journey inside
Explore Mousa Broch with our short video tour.
Located on the island of Mousa off the coast of Shetland and 13 metres tall, Mousa Broch is excellently preserved. It's thought to have been constructed in the Iron Age, around 300 BC.
This ancient dwelling is home to modern tenants: a colony of storm petrels. Though completely quiet during the day, at twilight the site comes alive with the call and quick wings of the birds returning and leaving their nests within the broch.
Explore the history
Mousa Broch is mentioned in two historical documents.
Egil’s Saga relates how, in AD 900, an eloping couple from Norway found themselves shipwrecked in Shetland, and sought refuge in ‘Morseyarborg’.
The Orkneyinga Saga recounts how, in AD 1153, a certain Erlend abducted Margaret, the mother of Earl Harold and took her to Morseyarborg ‘where everything had been made ready’. Earl Harold besieged the broch but found it ‘an unhandy place to get at’ for attack.