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Note
Date 2 March 2016 - 1 June 2016
Event ID 1044098
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Note
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1044098
There is a long-standing tradition that Sumburgh Head is the site of a fortification of some description, though the assertion by Sir Henry Dryden that it was a broch (1874, 211) is otherwise unsupported by any evidence. Nevertheless, George Low, visiting in 1774, claimed that access across the neck of the promontory was barred by 'a ditch and strong wall' (1879, 185), and in 1968 the OS identified two possible ramparts and ditches spanning the 50m wide neck where the road to the lighthouse zigzags up towards the summit; the ramparts, which are plainly visible on satellite imagery taken in 2004, have been reduced to scarps between 0.5m and 0.8m in height. This implies a large fort some 300m in length enclosing about 1.9ha along its crest, though the area of broken outcrops and bare rock descending to the sea covers a considerably larger area. Inevitably these possible defences are set at the point where any later agricultural boundary enclosing the headland is likely to have been placed and the true character of these remains can only be established by excavation. No trace of any entrance is visible at the neck, and nothing of the 'foundation of a large house' that Low observed at what he considered to be the entrance, nor of the numerous small buildings that lay 'along the wall and at some distance' (1789, 185), features that Raymond Lamb has suggested might have been comparable to the structures found in several promontory enclosures that are likely to have served as early medieval monastic sites (1973, 78).
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 01 June 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC4184
