Loch Of Brow
Broch (Iron Age)
Site Name Loch Of Brow
Classification Broch (Iron Age)
Canmore ID 540
Site Number HU31NE 7
NGR HU 3832 1561
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/540
- Council Shetland Islands
- Parish Dunrossness
- Former Region Shetland Islands Area
- Former District Shetland
- Former County Shetland
HU31NE 7 3832 1561
(HU 3831 1562) Brough (NR) (Site of) Stepping Stones (NAT)
OS 6" map, Shetland, 2nd ed., (1903).
A broch, the remains of which have been reduced to ground level and are now completely concealed by a heavy growth of long grass, situated on a small island which is connected to the shore by a passage of stepping-stones and a roughly laid causeway.
A portion of a saddle-quern is built into the wall of a plantie-crub (near the end of the causeway on the SW margin of the island) which has apparently been built with stones from the broch.
RCAHMS 1946, visited 1930.
As described by RCAHMS. All that remains is a circular hollow, diameter c.8.5m, presumably marking the interior of the broch, surrounded by a slight bank. Although no positive wall faces can be seen except at one point in the N where a tentative excavation has revealed a possible inner wall face, the wall appears to have been approximately 3.5m to 4.0m thick. The stepping stones and causeway are now 2ft beneath water level.
Visited by OS (AA), 21 June 1968.
Field Visit (26 August 1930)
Broch (probable), Loch of Brow, near Spiggie. There can be little doubt as to there having been a broch on the small island in the Loch of Brow.* Its remains, however, have been reduced to ground-level, and are now completely concealed by a heavy growth of long grass. Communication with the W. shore of the loch was maintained by a passage of stepping-stones and a roughly laid causeway, over which a small boat can only be taken with difficulty. When the site was visited, a portion of a saddle-quem was noticed in the wall of a ‘krub’, which has been built on the S.W. margin of the island, near the end of the causeway, apparently with stones taken from the broch.
RCAHMS 1946, visited 26 August 1930.
OS 6" map, Shetland, 2nd ed., (1903).
*The title 'Broch of Brow' seems to have been wrongly given in PSAS, xv, p.309. The monument there described and illustrated can safely be identified with HU41NW 1.
Publication Account (2002)
HU31 1 LOCH OF BROW
HU/383156
Possible broch in Dunrossness, on a small island in the loch. The remains are now reduced to ground level. Stepping stones and a rough causeway link the island to the west shore, but are now 2 ft. below water level [1]. A saddle quern was noted nearby in 1930 [2].
Sources: 1. OS card HU 31 NE 7: 2. 2. RCAHMS 1946, vol. 3, no. 1153, 34.
E W MacKie 2002