Publication Account
Date 1995
Event ID 1016762
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1016762
The broch is built on the edge of a terrace looking out over a fIat coastal strip to the sea. The knoll on which the broch stands may have been artificially steepened in places and is defended by a stone wall round its edge. Within this, and sometimes into this, a series of houses have been built and rebuilt, some perhaps contemporary with the broch, others certainly later. (The site was excavated in the late 19th century and the records are inadequate.)
The broch entrance is on the east and is approached by a stone-walled passage leading from the ourer wall. This passage was once Iintelled over and has checks for a wooden door. The broch entrance has its own set of door checks, here vertical slabs set at right angles to the passage wall, and a bar-hole, and beyond these a door to a chamber on the right. Inside the broch a doorway opposite the entrance opens onto the stairs, which can be climbed to the present top of the wall. This has been grassed over for its protection. A thick secondary facing, now of irregular height, hides much of the inner wall-face; it is the wall of a house constructed out of the broch remains after the highest part of the wall had fallen. In the top of the original wall-face there are traces of a scarcement ledge. Little can be seen of the galleries bur there are some traces high up near the entrance.
Sunk in the fIoor of the broch were three curious round 'chambers', apparently not water cisterns, perhaps storeholes, now filled in. Evidence for the manufacture of beads, rings and bangles from the local shale was found, also iron slag from ironworking. There are finds from the broch in Dunrobin Castle Museum.
Information from ‘Exploring Scotland’s Heritage: The Highlands’, (1995).
