Excavation

Date 1984 - 1987

Event ID 1003678

Category Recording

Type Excavation

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1003678

During a short trial within the Guardianship area the 1972 spoil tip was removed from the E side of the broch and the easterly approach passage was partially cleared. In the latter a well-preserved stepped paving was revealed, flanked and partially overlain by a wall of drystone masonry edged with several courses of dressed blocks. The excavated area has since been consolidated.

P Love 1984.

Excavation prior to consolidation at this site examined outworks to the NW of the broch. Despite thorough Victorian disturbance, a tentative chronology was established for the site. The Bronze Age was represented by a beaker fragment and later cist with food vessel and shale washer necklace. Pre-broch settlement, shown by post holes, predated the construction of the broch and attendant ring wall, while later Iron Age activity included the division into outbuildings of the area between the broch and outer wall by the addition of cross walls. A previously unrecorded circuit wall was identified downslope of the main outworks, and the site produced evidence of shale and iron working.

P Love 1986.

Further excavation took place in 1987, in parallel with masonry consolidation. A semi-circular stake defined feature was found around the Bronze Age cist discovered in 1986. This was apparently originally a complete circle, but had been truncated during scarping of the mound prior to the construction of the Iron Age outer wall. The new wall discovered on the outer slope of the broch mound last year was followed round to the N, and was found to be of two-phase construction. The entrance passage of the broch was cleared to the original paved level, and the guard cell and outer 'dog kennel' at the entrance were cleared of their modern fill prior to consolidation for display.

P Love 1987.