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Publication Account

Date 2002

Event ID 575329

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Publication Account

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/575329

HU27 2 LOCH OF HOULLAND ('Esha Ness')

HU/214792 (visited 4/61963)

This unexcavated broch in North-maven occupies almost the whole of a small, low, heavily defended promontory jutting into the Loch of Houlland (Ills. 4.21-23). The innermost of these defences, barring the neck of the promontory in front of the broch, is a stone-faced bank 2 ft. high on the exterior, with two more lines of large stones set edge in front of this. The outermost may also be a ruined wall with very large base stones. There is a causeway 8-9 ft. wide connecting the headland with a nearby island in the loch, and another connecting the island to the west shore. The site stands on low ground amid rolling cultivable land with sheer cliffs and the sea a few hundred yards away.

The stony broch mound still stands about 15 ft. high above the surrounding ground with the wall surviving to 12 ft. on the north and north-east (Ill. 4.22) although only the upper 7 ft. are clear of debris. An upper mural gallery on the wallhead is apparent on the north side.

The main entrance is on the west-south-west and is apparently lintelled at the inner end; it is 3 ft. wide at the mouth but narrows to 2 ft. 10 ins. at the inner end. The sides of a void can be seen above these lintels but there appears to be no front wall for this, its sides apparently going straight through to the exterior, a feature hard to understand. Misguided modern reconstruction (such as occurred at Clickhimin: HU44 1) is possible but perhaps more likely is the extension in ancient times of the passage through the wall at first floor level, because the ground level was already buried in debris. There are no signs of intra-mural galleries running into the sides of this chamber.

The roof of a tall mural cell, probably a guard chamber, is visible on the right of the entrance, its domed roof rising well above the lintels of the latter (Ill. 4.23): this is another clear sign of hollow-wall construction and probably explains the lack of an upper mural gallery at the chamber over the entrance. The tops of the cells would have blocked this, as at Dun Mor Vaul (NM04 4).

Dimensions: overall diameter c. 57 ft., wall c. 15 ft. thick; wall proportion is therefore approximately 52.6%.

Sources: 1. OS card HU 27 NW 5: 2. RCAHMS 1946, vol. 3, no. 1352, 89-90; 3. Low 1774, 136.

E W MacKie 2002

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