Field Visit

Date 14 June 1910

Event ID 1165166

Category Recording

Type Field Visit

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1165166

RCAHMS County Inventory: Caithness

Immediately to the N of the harbour of Keiss, on a beach terrace now overgrown with grass, is the ‘Keiss broch’ or ‘Harbour mound’ (RCAHMS 1911 fig. 39 and pl. LI), which was excavated by the late Sir Francis Tress Barry. The entrance has been from the seaward direction, and, though both sides of the passage are gone, there are remains of the floor of a guard chamber on the right. A well-made drain passes under the flags of the entrance. The interior diameter is 38' [11.6m], and the thickness of the wall about 12' [3.7m]. Against the lower part of the inner face is a lining wall or scarcement 1' 3" thick and still remaining to a height of about 5' on the N., thus reducing the interior diameter to some 35' 6" at floor level. The general average height of wall remaining in the interior is about 5' [1.5m], and the greatest height, which is towards the N, is 8' [2.4m]. At 24' round the inner circumference to the left of the entrance is the entrance, 2' 10" wide, to a stair in the thickness of the wall at a height of 3' 6" above the general floor level. The stair is 2’ 8” wide, but most of the steps are now concealed by the debris. From the level of the entrance to the stair, five steps were discovered on excavation leading down to a water hole, but they are not now visible. The water hole evidently communicated with a well in the interior, irregularly circular, about 4 ½’ in diameter and 6' in depth. Four steps led down to it, and the top was covered by slabs laid level with the floor. On the opposite side of the broch there has been another stairway with a chamber at the foot of the stair, now built up. The stair rose to the right and was 3' 4" wide. The entrance to it had been at one time part of a main entrance through the exterior part of the- wall, but had subsequently been built up and the scarcement built in front of it. On the outside lies a large triangular block of stone which may have formed the lintel of this doorway. The greatest height of wall remaining on the exterior is 5' 6". In the interior are the remains of various small enclosures formed of flags set on end. Immediately outside the closed entrance on the NE. are the remains of an outer wall, and at 16' back from the broch the face of a wall, concentric with the main structure, has been exposed for a distance of some 24' and is visible passing onwards round the building towards the S. The interspace in front of the closed entrance is paved.

Among the relics found on excavation were two fragments of Roman Samian ware; portions of bowls of 2nd-century type, on one of which is an undraped figure of Venus (Dechelette No. 173); two pieces of white ware, covered with a black slip and decorated with a scroll ornament in white, Romano-British manufacture of the 2nd century; a few pieces of coarse unglazed pottery, decorated with an impressed chevrony pattern; a small crucible, 7/8" in depth, with a portion of melted bronze adhering to the bottom; a long-handled bone comb 5 ½” in length; a lamp of sandstone measuring 5 ¼" x 4 ¼ "; a rudely shaped cup of sandstone measuring 4 ½ " x 4 ½ " in length and breadth and 2" in depth; saddle querns and portions of rotary querns; antlers of the red-deer of great size, and bones of the Great Auk. In an earlier excavation a portion of the horn of a reindeer was discovered. The relics are preserved in the National Museum of Antiquities, Edinburgh.

See Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot., vol. 35 p. 122 (plan and illus.); ibid. vol.7 p. 42 (illus.); ibid. vol.8. p. 192 (illus.).

RCAHMS 1911, visited 14 June 1910.

OS 6” map (1907)