Note
Date 26 February 2015 - 1 November 2016
Event ID 1044128
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Note
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1044128
The broch that stands on the Point of Burrian, which is the southernmost tip of North Ronaldsay, occupies all that is left of a low promontory of rock enclosed on the landward side by a series of walls or ramparts. The greater part of the promontory, however, is now swept bare by the sea, and but for the maintenance of the sheep dyke acting as a seawall round the seaward side the broch would have been destroyed long since. The broch, which was excavated by Dr William Traill 1870-1 (1880), measures some 9.4m in diameter within a wall up to 4.5m in thickness at the checked entrance on the SE; it also displays several other architectural features, including a scarcement, a mural cell and a well. The outer defences comprise up to four roughly concentric walls or ramparts drawn in a shallow arc across the landward approach from the NW. All have been severely reduced, but geophysical survey by Orkney College in 2005 suggests differences in their construction and also revealed elements of an extensive extramural settlement (Sharman 2005). The surviving area of the interior measures about 40m from NE to SW immediately to the rear of these defences by a maximum of 30m transversely (0.07ha), though it may once have extended considerably further on the seaward side. The location is not typical of promontory forts and the relationship between the broch and the outer defences is not known, but there is no reason why this was not the site of a free-standing promontory enclosure prior to the construction of the broch.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 01 November 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC2849
