Note
Date 1 June 2016 - 16 November 2016
Event ID 1044176
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Note
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1044176
The broch between St Mary's Chapel (Canmore 8005) and the coastal cliffs at Crosskirk stood behind an outer wall, which had been drawn across the neck of the shallow promontory to enclose an area measuring at least 60m from E to W by 30m transversely. The wall measured in the order of 5m in thickness and was still standing 1.25m high, and it was pierced on the S by an entrance with stone slab checks and a bar-hole. The broch was first surveyed in detail in 1871 by Sir Henry Dryden (RCAHMS CAD 68/1), while in 1910 Alexander Curle noted the outer wall, but following excavations by Horace Fairhurst 1966-72 to mitigate the impact of coastal erosion, the greater part the broch and the surrounding structures was bulldozed over the edge of the cliff. The excavation revealed a complex sequence in which the excavator believed that the broch, and a settlement that subsequently developed around it, had succeeded an earlier promontory fort (Fairhurst 1984). No stratigraphic evidence was advanced to sustain this aspect of the sequence, which seems largely based on the character of the pottery found on the floor of a mural cell that was uncovered, and the evidence of activity preceding what was considered to be the primary broch floor. Seven radiocarbon dates that were obtained merely suggest that the origins of the site lie rather earlier than the dates that would have been ascribed to the broch on the strength of sherds of Samian and late Roman ware (see discussion by Mackie 2007, 407-26). Though little of the assemblage recovered from the broch and the later settlement can be ascribed to an earlier occupation, it also included: plain coarse sherds and decorated pottery; bronze ring-headed pins and spiral finger rings; both rotary and saddle querns; a painted pebble; stone lamps, whetstones, spindle whorls and discs; weaving combs and other bone tools; six beads; and a Pictish symbol stone had been found previously.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 16 November 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC4348
