Portal:Scotland/Selected article/Week 16, 2012

The Crucible of Iron Age Shetland is a combination of three sites in Shetland that have applied to be on the United Kingdom "Tentative List" of possible nominations for the UNESCO World Heritage Programme list of sites of outstanding cultural or natural importance to the common heritage of humankind. The application was made by the Shetland Amenity Trust in 2010, and in 2011 the site became one of 11 successful UK applications to join the Tentative List, three of them from Scotland.

The application for consideration of "Mousa, Old Scatness and Jarlshof: The Crucible of Iron Age Shetland" as a future World Heritage Site was made after the UK government called for nominations for entries to form the UK's new Tentative List of sites. The Tentative List is used as the candidate list by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) when considering new sites for inscription. A list of 38 applications in total was announced in July 2010, after which an independent panel of experts was to assess them, with a view to paring it down and submitting it as the UK's new Tentative List to UNESCO in 2011.