Clickimin Broch on a Loch | Lerwick, Shetland in Scotland
What on Earth is a Clickimin Broch—on a Loch? I’m happy to pretend you asked, or maybe you do ask, after all. I can shrug my shoulders with the best of them.
For starters, it’s these pictures. They are from one of the smaller Scottish Islands above the mainland of Scotland, called Shetland. It is part of the Shetland Archipelago, which is in the highest most reaches of the United Kingdom.
Just outside of the port of Lerwick, there is a small loch (lake): Clickimin Loch.
This Loch used to flood a great deal, and a very clever group of humans during the bronze age and early iron age, built this fortified broch (tower & house), which would become inaccessible to foot traffic, due to the flooding of the lake.
It’s an old fortified space built into a hill, like a hobbit’s home in a Tolkien novel. As you can see from the sign, it’s estimated to having been built around 2,400 years ago, if not longer. And the local residents walk right by it as they get toilet paper at the store or buy a cup of coffee or fill up their gas tank. Wild.
It’s a beautiful taste of human ingenuity.
Who knows whether it compares with some girl eating a watermelon and making a joke about quitting an absurd amount of vices, or some person shredding on a instrument, or a chef sharing amazing Chinese food recipes from his repertoire.
If I were trying to influence you—it’s just to convince you to go see a bit of the world with your own eyes and marvel at how incredible we are (and were) during the advent of farming, which allowed human beings to specialize and learn an instrument or how to become a specialized chef, let alone eat a watermelon in a global location that such melons are not originally and normally indigenous. These are things we do not bother thinking about on a daily basis, in 2026—or perhaps you do. I don’t know. I shouldn’t put words in your mouth.
What I can say is that I stood on these ancient grounds and daydreamed about the generations of families that were sheltered from the rain and weather, sleeping on granite stone slabs with their mother and father and siblings.
WHO IS MIKE VITALE?
I am a storyteller, songwriter, singer, music producer, traveling musician, Jungian dream analyst, all-around curious fellow (Spiritual, Mathematical Historical, Scientific), Taoist, and much much more, based out of Los Angeles, California. I’m constantly releasing new music, in all sorts of different genres. You can listen to me below, on Spotify: