Publication Account
Date 2007
Event ID 586790
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/586790
NC64 1 LANGDALE BURN (‘Lang-dale’)
NC/6926 4496
This broch stands on a steep, conical rock knoll next to the Langdale Burn (a quarter mile from the river Naver), with a more shallow slope on the upstream side (visited 11/7/63). There is a modern farm nearby and the site has a good outlook in all directions [3].
The entrance is on the west, facing upstream, and is about 4.58m (15ft) long and 91cm (3ft) wide at the outer end. A built door-check on the right (south) is 91cm (3ft) from the inner end and all the lintels have been displaced. There may be a rebate for an outer doorway in the ruined left wall, 1.3m from the exterior [3], so this broch may have had two doors in its entrance passage. There are signs of the upper part of a round mural cell at about 7 o'clock and this may be a guard cell on the left of the passage. The broch is full of debris so that the inner and outer wallfaces are mostly obscured. There are signs of a mural gallery on the wallhead at about 5 o'clock; this is probably an upper one since it seems to be above the level where the entrance lintels should be.
Dimensions: interior diameter 9.15m (30ft: author's measurement): wall 4.58m (15ft) thick at the entrance and 4.88-5.l9m (16-17ft) on the south side [2]: assuming an average thickness of 4.88m (16ft) the external diameter would be about 18.91m (62ft) and the wall proportion approximately 51%. Swanson gives the internal north/south diameter as 9.4m [3].
Sources: 1. NMRS site no. NC 64 SE 1: 2. RCAHMS 1911a, 59-60, no. 177: 3. Swanson (ms) 1985, 739-41 and plan.
E W MacKie 2007
