Pricing Change
New pricing for orders of material from this site will come into place shortly. Charges for supply of digital images, digitisation on demand, prints and licensing will be altered.
Field Visit
Date 17 July 1930 - 13 July 1934
Event ID 1125238
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1125238
Broch, Clumlie. This broch occupies the crest of a natural elevation known as the Brae of the North Yard, about a quarter of a mile due N. of the Loch of Clumlie. Only the lower levels of the structure survive. These were partially excavated in 1887 by Goudie, who contributed a short account of the results to the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, xxiii (1888-9), pp. 249-53. A more detailed description will be found in the same writer's Celtic and Scandinavian Antiquities of Shetland, pp. 21-9.
The over-all diameter is 68 ft., while the thickness of the main or original wall varies from 17 to 18 ft., leaving a diameter of 33 or 34 ft. for the central courtyard. On the N.E. the outer face is 7 or 8 ft. high, but Goudie explains that the upper courses were rebuilt at the time of the excavation. The entrance passage, which is on the S.E., has had a height of about 5 ft., with a width of 3 ft. 6 in. at the outer end and of almost 6 ft. where it opens into the interior. At a distance of 11 ft. from the outside were two upright slabs which had served as door-checks. Goudie found a lintel stone still in position between them, but it is now displaced, the door-check on the N. having fallen. There is no indication of a bar-hole. On each side is a chamber within the thickness of the wall. The chamber on the N., which is 9 ft. 6 in. long by 4 ft. 8 in. wide, is reached from the inner part of the entrance-passage through a small opening 2 ft. above floor-level. The one on the S. is more ruinous, but has measured approximately 14 ft. 6 in. by 5 ft. 3 in. There is no direct communication between it and the entrance-passage, approach in this case having been through an opening in the face of the wall of the central courtyard, at a point about 9 ft. W. of the inner end of the entrance.
The foregoing description deals with the broch as originally built. In this case, however, as in so many others throughout Orkney and Shetland, there is clear evidence that fundamental changes were subsequently made in the arrangement of the interior. A new wall, the thickness of which increases from about 1 ft. at the entrance to about 5 ft. on the W., has been built against the face of the wall which enclosed the central courtyard, thus reducing the size of the latter considerably. This ‘secondary’ wall, however, has not been carried all the way round. On the W. there is a gap, 7 ft. 3 in. wide at the outer end and 8 ft. 3 in. at the original wall-face (Goudie 1904, 26). Judging from the analogy of other brochs, one might be disposed to suggest that the well-finished recess so produced was opposite the beginning of the stair. That proved to be so with a very similar recess at Levenwick (HU41NW 3) (Ibid, 16). On the right of the recess, but unconnected with it, is an empty space of uncertain length and with no visible entrance. It is 3 ft. wide, and lies between the original wall-face and the " secondary" wall, which is here therefore only about 2 ft. thick. The remains of the hearth (H), which Goudie discovered in the central court, can still be readily distinguished on the now grass-grown floor. It was presumably in use during the second period, but it may also have been a feature of the earlier one (Ibid, 27).
In the course of the excavations a good many characteristic broch objects were picked up such as grain-rubbers, whetstones, whorls, hammer-stones, fragments of pottery, animal bones, etc. A number of these were presented to the National Museum (Ibid, 27-8). It should be added that Goudie found evidence that, after its collapse, the structure had been used at least once for what he believed to have been an interment. Within the chamber which was entered from the courtyard, and at a height of 2 ft. 6 in. above its floor-level, he encountered a carefully constructed and clay-sealed cist filled with what he calls "unctuous matter." An analysis of the contents failed to yield any positive results (Ibid, 26).
RCAHMS 1946, visited 17 July 1930, 6 and 13 July 1934.
