Note
Date 3 March 2016 - 18 May 2016
Event ID 1044105
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Note
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1044105
The broch overlooking Noss Sound on the E coast of Bressay occupies a low promontory which is also defended by two strong ramparts drawn in an arc across the neck to bar access from the N. The broch has been reduced to little more than a mound of rubble, and the outlying ramparts, which conventionally would be considered outworks to the broch, have also been reduced heavily reduced. Lying about 4.5m apart, the ramparts are of some size, and the occasional facing stones noted by RCAHMS investigators in 1930 led them to believe they represented two walls in the order of 3m in thickness. Most of the interior, currently measuring about 30m across (0.09ha), is occupied by the broch, and while it may have been reduced in size, it has probably not been significantly larger. The position of the entrance is not known. While the possibility that the ramparts were conceived here independently of the broch, the topographical character of this promontory, with shelving outcrops dropping down to the sea, is not directly comparable to the promontory forts more typically found in the Northern Isles, and in this case they are perhaps more likely to have been outworks to the broch.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 18 May 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC4190
