Written by two of Historic Scotland's Principal Inspectors of Ancient Monuments, this guide tells the story of Shetland's history through its surviving monuments. The book tells of the islands' first settlement by neolithic farmers and the surviving neolithic landscape and buildings at Stanydale, the Iron Age houses and brochs at Jarlshof, the castles of Scottish incomers at Muness and Scalloway and the artillery defenses of Fort Charlotte, built to protect the anchorage of Bressay sound in the 1780s. The historical narrative is interspersed with guided tours of the monuments themselves.