Publication Account
Date 2002
Event ID 575330
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/575330
HU27 3 SAE BRECK (‘Saebrig’)
HU/211781 (visited 4/6/63)
A partially excavated, probable solid-based broch in Northmaven, on the summit of a high but shallowly sloping hill next the sea (Ill. 4.24). This site was thought to be a cairn by the Commission's investigators [2] but was identified as a broch in 1949 during two days excavation by C. S. T. Calder [3]. A watchtower had been built exactly on top of the main structure and the foundations for this prevented any examination of the interior.
However two opposing sections of the main wall were uncovered, on the north and south sides, and in each was a mural cell of the usual sort found in solid-based brochs. Each was a curved, parallel-sided structure with a door to the interior nearer one end than the other; the sill of the door of each was well above its floor and presumably above the floor of the central court.
In the case of Cell A on the south the sill was 2 ft. 4 ins. high, and 4 ft. in the case of Cell B. Both sections of wall exposed were still standing about 5 ft. high and most of the corbelled domes of the cells had disappeared. The north cell was empty but the one on the south was found to have a clay floor covered by an irregular layer of peat ash up to 8 ins. thick. In the ash were some limpet shells and many potsherds. The latter were diagnosed by J R C Hamilton as a mixture of the Class I and II wares then being found at Jarlshof (HU30 1); they were fragments of tall, situlate jars with slightly everted rims and made of hard, gritty dark grey or buff-brown ware. [3, fig. 3]. Some of the sherds appear to be of true everted rim ware [3, no. GA 1206].
An outer wall was traced around the broch at various distances from it; 15 ft. on the north, 20 ft. on the west, 48 ft. on the south and 30 ft. on the east. The masonry faces of this outer wall were traced on the north-east for a short distance and the outer face on the SW for a few feet.
Dimensions: overall diameter 55 ft.; the two sections of the wall exposed were 15.5 ft. thick, so the internal diameter is about 26 ft.; the walls proportion is therefore about 52.7%. The remains are now hidden by turf.
Sources: 1. OS card HU 27 NW 2; 2. RCAHMS 1946, vol. 3, no. 1361, 94 ("cairn"): 3. Calder 1952.
E W MacKie 2002
