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Publication Account
Date 2002
Event ID 585681
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/585681
HY50 5 HOWE OF LANGSKAILL (‘Round Howe’)
HY/50780593
Probable broch in St. Andrews and Deerness, on a hillock 200 m NW of the farm of that name; the remains have been cut in two by the road and there is little to be seen now. It was dug into in about 1860 by Farrer and planned by G. Petrie [3].
The building is recorded as having been rather small, 12.2 - 13.7 m (40-45 ft.) in overall diameter and 6.1 - 8.5 m (20-28 ft.) internally (Petrie’s plan indicates 12.09 m with the wall 3.05 m thick [5]). The wall was from 20.0 - 25.0 m (8-10 ft.) thick [4], and an entrance 60 cm (2 ft.) wide was found on the east-north-east. At first sight the whole building seems to have been very ruinous but Hedges suggests that the difficulty Petrie had in understanding what Farrer had partly exposed may be because only the top few cm of a structure still standing about 4.27m high was uncovered [5]. An outer embankment or wall surrounded the broch at a distance of 20.0 - 24.0 m (66-78 ft.).
Sources: 1. OS card HY 50 NW 8: 2. Anderson 1878, 318: 3. Petrie 1890, 93, no. 13: 4. RCAHMS 1946, 2, 243, no. 627: 5. Hedges et al. 1987, 79-80 and pls. 3.7 and 3.8 (ms sketch plan of broch and general plan, by Petrie): 6. Lamb 1987, 23.
E W MacKie 2002
