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Desk Based Assessment

Event ID 653099

Category Recording

Type Desk Based Assessment

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/653099

ND07SW 4 0248 7012.

(ND 0248 7112) Broch (NR) (rems of)

OS 1:10,000 map, (1975)

The broch at Crosskirk Bay, Reay, has an internal diameter of approximately 30 to 32ft and a wall 14 to 15ft thick. It has been broken into from the S, where there appears to have been an entrance to the left of which the sides of a chamber are visible in the wall. At the edge of the cliff, some 20ft of wall about 4 to 5ft high is exposed. On the landward side about 10ft from the broch are the remains of an outer bank or wall, now some 8ft wide at the base.

RCAHMS 1911; H Dryden 1871 (Soc of Antiqs Ms No. 21)

The remains of this broch, unsafe through coastal erosion, was excavated by Fairhurst and Taylor from 1966 to 1972 on behalf of DoE, before being demolished, earthed over and seeded with grass. The excavation revealed evidence of a secondary settlement within an outwork on the east, and an extension of the entrance passage east-wards, part of which was converted,in the last stages of occupation, into a souterrain. The outwork commenced in the east in front of the broch entrance, as a wall 15'thick with an earth core. Further to the west where bedrock came near the surface, the outwork continued as a terrace-like feature with a 'cell-like' structure behind. In front was a ditch, largely natural, which was 3m deep. In the extreme west fence of flag-stones seems to have completed the defences. One of the final episodes in the occupation of the site was a burial in the centre of a roughly circular dwelling. The body had been placed in a sitting position and was unaccompanied by grave-goods. As well as native pottery, bonework, querns, etc., finds included 2nd century Samian and a fragment of possibly Roman glass, now in the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland (NMAS).

H Fairhurst, D B Taylor and A Morrison 1966; H Fairhurst 1969; H Fairhurst and D B Taylor 1970; H Fairhurst and D B Taylor 1971; H Fairhurst and D B Taylor 1972.

Bronze spiral finger-rings.

E W MacKie 1971

Evidence of occupation as late as the 8th century was found during the excavations.

E W MacKie 1975.

Information from OS.

People and Organisations

References