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Publication Account
Date 2002
Event ID 585543
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/585543
HY31 16 REDLAND (‘Broch of Redland’, 'Stirlingo')
HY/377171
This is the site of a solid-based broch near Stirlingo, Firth, which was excavated by Farrer in 1856 or 1858 [5, 62] and was almost completely destroyed about 1874. The ground has since been under cultivation but is was a peat moss at the time of the excavation, and may have been a shallow loch in Iron Age times [3]. Petrie made some sketches of the building at the time of excavation [5, 63, fig. 3.11] but the broch plan shows almost nothing.
On excavation the broch was found to be smaller than usual, 13.7 m (45 ft.) in overall diameter with an internal diameter of 8.2 m (27 ft.) and a wall 2.7 m (9 ft.) thick: the wall proportion is thus 40.0%. The wall was 9 ft. thick. A partly rock-cut well with steps leading down to it was found in the central area and Petrie sketched a cross section of this [5, 63, fig. 3.11]. The broch is said to have been surrounded by a moat.
A mural gallery 2 ft. 6 in. wide (not shown in Petrie’s sketch) was observed running round the wall at the time of the excavation. Graham (1947; 61) suggested that it may have been a basal gallery, a view supported by Hedges [5, 64]. However Petrie says that “when exposed, the walls of this broch were of sufficient remaining height to show the encircling gallery, which was 2.5 ft. in breadth, the wall outside the gallery being 3.5 ft. thick, and the inner one 3 ft. in.” [3]; this may mean that the gallery was an upper one and that the structure was a solid -based broch. The wall had begun to bulge outwards in ancient times and appeared to have been shored up by a “rudely built facing” [2].
Finds: parts of a stone quern and a stone vessel were found, as well a piece of red pigment (perhaps haematite) [3] and a stone “club” [4]. A stone incised with a spiral was found in the secondary construction built against the outer wall face.
Sources: 1. OS card HY 31 NE 12: 2. Petrie 1890, 84-5 and 87: 3. Petrie 1927, 53: 4. RCAHMS 1946, 2, no. 320, 91: 5. Hedges et al. 1987, 62-4.
E W MacKie 2002
