Publication Account
Date 1996
Event ID 1016327
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1016327
The seaward side of the broch has suffered inevitable erosion, compounded by the fact that it has been incorporated into the island's sheep dyke, the wall that keeps the seaweed-eating sheep on the foreshore. But the broch is still an impressive monument, its wall more than 3m high, and traces on the landward side of four concentric ramparts. There appear not to have been guard-cells flanking the passage leading into the broch, only a small cell opening from the interior at ground level. Oddly, the ledge on which the first floor would have been supported is at a height of only 1m above the floor, and about 1.3m above the ledge the wall is stepped inwards, both features difficult to explain in terms of how the interior of the broch was arranged. There is also an underground well or storage chamber.
Excavations in the early 1870s were of a better standard than was often the case, and they produced a large collection of artefacts, spanning iron-age and Pictish times, as well as bones of cattle, sheep, pig, dog and horse. There was clearly re-use of the site in the 7th and 8th centuries AD, not only within the broch but also in domestic structures outside.
Information from ‘Exploring Scotland’s Heritage: Orkney’, (1996).
