Page:Shetland Folk-Lore - Spence - 1899.pdf/62

 often found in level fields, dug deep into the ground. These must have formed the earliest abodes of the Norsemen. They are quite different from the mound dwellings or earth houses.

“The conclusion I have come to is that Shetland was inhabited by three successive and distinct races before the arrival of the Norsemen, and that the last of them, the Finns, built the brochs.

“The popular opinion is that the brochs were built by the Picts, a small people. Such could not have been the case. But the Finns were compelled to leave after the Northmen arrived. Before leaving they dismantled their castles, so that the Northmen could not live in them.

“The mound-dwellers took possession of them, and came in contact with the early Udallers. In time the Finn owners were forgotten, and the mound-dwellers, or Pechts, became associated in the public mind with the brochs.”

Though I do not agree with all the