Following the launch of trove.scot in February 2025 we are now planning the retiral of some of our webservices. Canmore will be switched off on 24th June 2025. Information about the closure can be found on the HES website: Retiral of HES web services | Historic Environment Scotland
Field Visit
Date 4 June 1991
Event ID 1108024
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1108024
The robbed remains of this broch and its outworks occupy the E end of a low ridge which, on the S, falls steeply to the River Helmsdale.
Roughly circular on plan, it measures about 12m in diameter within the remains of a wall up to 4.5m in thickness; the N quadrant of the wall was removed before 1909 but, elsewhere, it stands to a maximum height of 1m with what is probably an entrance on the ESE there are traces of two intramural structures, one on the NNE, possibly part of a passage or chamber, and the second, on the S, may be the remains of a guard-cell opening off the W side of the entrance-passage. The court is choked with tumbled stone in which at least three huts have been created.
The broch is surrounded by an outer wall, measuring 1.5m in thickness and 0.6m in maximum height which, on the W, N and E has been accompanied by a ditch, 9m broad and 2.5m deep. The entrance through the outwork lies on the ESE; here the ditch was expanded in breadth and the wall extended around the ditch terminal. On the E and S there are traces of a counterscarp bank, and on the E a further short stretch of bank cuts across the crest of the ridge.
Visited by RCAHMS (DCC) 4 June 1991.
