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Publication Account
Date 2007
Event ID 586498
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/586498
ND34 15 WATENAN NORTH ND/3180 4146
This broch in Wick, Caithness, is now almost completely grass-covered and stands on a mound in flat country near the north end of Loch Watenan. It is one of the finest examples in the area of a ruined broch standing on a probably multi-period earlier mound [3]. A recent careful survey has located no fewer than three outer wallfaces of stone in the ruins of the central building [3]; the outer one suggests an overall diameter of about 18m (64ft), and the inner one of about 12m (40ft).
Both faces of an intra-mural cell or gallery can still be seen on the east side [3] and was better exposed in 1910 (through the collapse of part of its corbelled roof) when a doorway to the interior was visible from inside it [2]. This doorway was 60cm (2ft) wide and 1.2m (4ft) long. The inner face of this feature could be the innermost “face” mentioned by Mercer, in which case it is probably a gallery, and presumably an upper one since the height of the broch mound itself is 4 m. Thus it might be supposed that the structure is not so much a "complex of superimposed buildings" [3] but rather a simple broch with upper mural gallery preserved. The doorway to the interior seen in 1910 could be a raised doorway or void connecting with a Level 2 gallery. However if this intra-mural space really is a cell as claimed by Mercer (no ends are shown on the plan) then things may not be so simple; excavation will be needed to make things clear.
The “intermediate” face may be the actual outer face of the broch, though the indicated diameter of 15m is small, or, perhaps more likely, an intermediate wall-face. The wall here is 3.6m (12ft) thick [2]. There are signs of outbuildings on the east, between the base of the broch and the edge of the underlying mound, which itself displays at least three wall facings at different levels [3]. This is a complex site which would surely repay systematic excavation.
Sources: 1. NMRS site no. ND 34 SW 10: 2. RCAHMS 1911b, 163-4, no. 524: 3. Mercer 1985, no. WAR 184 and fig. 63.
E W MacKie 2007
