Publication Account
Date 2007
Event ID 586921
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/586921
NC80 2 CARN LIATH 1 (‘Dunrobin’)
NC/871013 (8704 0137 – GPS).
This solid-based probable broch in Golspie, Sutherland, stands a short distance from the sea on an apparently flat-topped rock knoll which rises from flat ground; it stands on a fertile strip of raised beach which runs along the coast here for several miles. The site is immediately east of the main road and above the old shore line, now a bank nearer to the sea. The name means “the white” or “fair cairn”, a reference to the pile of pale stones that it was before excavation [9, pl. 5] (visited 8 and 22/7/63, in 1971, in 10/7/85 and 21/7/03).
Early descriptions
In 1769 the site was visited by Thomas Pennant when it was evidently much better preserved than it is now. He wrote –
"Not far from Dunrobin is a very entire piece of antiquity of the kind known in Scotland by the name of Pictish Castles, and called here 'Carn Lia' or a grey tower; that I saw was about 130 yards in circumference" (or 62ft in diameter) "round, and raised so high above the ground as to form a considerable mount; on the top was an extensive but shallow hollow; within were three low concentric galleries, at small distances from each other, covered with large stones; and the side walls were about four or five feet thick, rudely made."
Comments on these observations are made below under 'Structural analysis'.
Excavation in 1868
The broch and some of the surrounding outbuildings were cleared out by the third Duke of Sutherland, the owner of the land, in 1868 and, inevitably for that period of antiquarian research, the finds recovered were not related to any clear stratigraphy. A summary of the results was published by Rev. Joass [3]. The site is now under guardianship and the interior was further explored in 1972 by John X W P Corcoran whose untimely death not long afterwards prevented publication of his work. Further excavations were undertaken by Paula Love in 1986 and 1987 [9], mainly to improve the appearance of the visible features but also to establish exactly what the Duke of Suther-land and Corcoran had found (see below).
Much of the wall still stands up to 3.66m (12ft) high, though the faces are lower and it is lower overall at the entrance. Many traces of stone-walled buildings surround the broch and they appeared to be contained within a massive outer wall which has been only partly exposed.
When the author first visited this broch in 1963 it appeared to be much as it had been left after the 19th century explorations, apart from considerable dilapidation in the intervening century. Since that time extensive restoration and reconstruction work has been carried out by the Government agency now known as Historic Scotland and – as is the usual practice in this country – it is rarely possible for the visitor to tell which parts of the monument are original and which have been restored. To compare, for example, the state of the broch stairway in 1963 with its present state is to get a vivid impression of how the site has been altered. Restoration and stabilisation were of course essential; the broch is next to, and clearly visible from, the main road north (the A9), as well as from the nearby railway, and is visited by hundreds if not thousands of people every year.
The primary entrance passage is on the east side and 5.49m (18ft) in length, with several of the outermost lintels in position. Joass gave the height of the passage under the lintels as 2.14m (7ft) and its width is 91cm (3ft) [3, 103]. The door-frame is about 1.53m (5ft) from the exterior and now consists of one rebated check (faced with an upright slab) in the right wall; what looks like a broken-off projecting slab in the opposite wall, and what is presumably a sill stone, are marked on Joass' plan [3, pl. xiv] and both are visible in a photograph taken at about 1900 [4, 117, fig. 3]. In 1909 a bar-hole 69cm (2ft 3in) deep was behind the left check with a socket in the opposite wall [5], but these have now disappeared, having presumably been filled up.
The same early photograph of the inner end of the passage clearly shows its sides extending upwards above the lintels for about 1m, indicating that there was a chamber over the entrance – a characteristic feature of hollow-walled brochs. Indeed Joass' cross- sections through the entrance show this clearly [3, pl. xv, sections A-B and east-F]. No doubt this feature – not specifically mentioned in previous accounts of the site except, briefly, in that of Anderson [4] – was somewhat restored after the original excavations but there is no reason to doubt its existence. At about 1900 all the passage lintels seem to have been in position (again no doubt some had been replaced) and Anderson mentions gaps between them, through which intruders could be attacked from the chamber above.
The 1985 photograph shows just how much damage the restored inner part of the entrance passage has suffered in the intervening years (the large block at lower right in this picture, from which a huge flake has been removed, can be identified in the older photograph). Most of the lintels have gone and the chamber above the entrance is no longer traceable.
A guard cell opens off the right side of the passage, and is reached through a low lintelled doorway behind the main door-frame, by way of a step down into the interior [9]. It measures 3.0m (10ft) by 1.5m (5ft) by 2.4m (8ft) high and its roof was "flatly arches with flags" [3, 103]; in other words it had roof of lintels which were apparently stepped to form a shallow dome [4, pl. xv, section east-F]. These stepped lintels must have formed the floor of the Level 2 gallery which, we know from historical evidence, was once immediately above it. If the gallery joined the chamber over the entrance (which seems at first sight to be very unlikely, but see below) this shallow dome would have restricted access into its inner parts of the Level 2 gallery (there is a similar situation at Mousa: HU42 6).
In 1963 there was visible above the entrance a curious structural feature not specifically mentioned either by Joass or by the Royal Commission. This is a long, rectangular chamber on the present wallhead and crossing the entrance passage about half way down it and it extends to about 4.3m (14ft) on either side of it, following the curve of the wall. Only the lower courses are preserved and such a feature would normally be regarded as a length of the first floor gallery; however its built ends were clearly visible in 1963, suggesting that – unless these ends are the result of modern restoration – that it is not a gallery but some kind of long chamber. It crosses the entrance passage behind the door-checks and could only have been reached by way of the chamber above the passage, which opened into the interior, probably at the height of the scarcement.
However the 1901 photograph appears to show both sides of this upper chamber complete, with no lateral openings leading to this long wallhead feature [4]. It is difficult now to assess the precise nature of these first floor features. The author knows of no comparable closed chamber at other sites, although there are a few examples of first floor galleries connecting with the chamber over the entrance. Restoration work and the grassing-over of the wallhead since 1963 has obliterated most of this first floor feature which, all things considered, is perhaps most likely to be a length of the Level 2 (first floor) gallery to which – its nature being unclear because it had only been partly exposed – ends were added after the 19th century excavation.
At about 9 o'clock (10 o'clock on the 19th century plan) is the doorway to the mural stair, rising as usual to the right; there is no sign of a stair-foot guard cell. There were twenty-one steps preserved in 1909 [5] but about a third of these has since disappeared. Both the stair doorway and the stair itself, roofless in 1963, have since been restored and several stone lintels were replaced over them.
The inner wallface now stands up to 3.05 - 3.66m (10 -12ft) high in places and a well preserved ledge type scarcement, about 15cm (6in) wide, runs round the south-east sector of the wall at a height of about 2.44m (8ft) above the present floor. The Commission gives the height of the ledge as about 1.83m (6ft), and Joass as 1.53m (5ft), above the floor but they were probably referring to the much more obvious secondary wall (below). There do not seem to be any other openings in the interior wallface (although the stretch of secondary walling from about 6 to 9 o'clock might conceal the opening to a mural cell).
Joass discovered two large chambers sunk into the floor. That on the south is near the centre and was then thought to be 2.44m (8ft) deep, 3.36m (11ft) long by 2.14m (7ft) wide; it is built of large upright flags about 1.5m (5ft) high surmounted by dry walling, and it connects with a small subsidiary chamber on the east 91cm (3ft) deep. The positioning of this underground chamber or cellar is curious as one would normally expect a large paved hearth in the middle of a broch central court. There was a third sunken chamber on the north side of the court next to the wall; this was found to be 2.44m (8ft) long, 1.83m (6ft) deep and the same at maximum width. It was built in the same way – of upright slabs facing inwards and surmounted by drystone walling – and a narrow stone slab, 2.44m (8ft) high, stood on its floor at the north end, projecting from the wall into the interior.
Excavations in 1972
The re-excavation of the central chamber by Corcoran in 1972 [9, pl. 3] was described by Paula Love some years later [9]; she also re-exposed the chamber on the north [9, pl. 8]. This work showed that the structure of their walls was not as unequivocal as was suggested by Joass; upright slabs were visible at the base of the drystone walling but the bases of these appeared to be lower than the depth given by Joass. The Duke's diggers had evidently not reached the bottom.
Moreover the lower parts of the chamber proved to have been excavated out of the underlying sand layer (starting 1.20m below broch floor level) which rendered deep re-excavation hazardous. As a result, and because adequate shoring was not available, the work on both chambers was abandoned by Corcoran and the chambers were filled in permanently. Their precise nature thus remains somewhat obscure and the conditions in the central chamber "rendered the interpretation of the structure purely conjectural, save to say that it would have made an unlikely well or cistern (Young 1962, 182)." [9, 159]. Some tentative further suggestions are made below; all these pits in the central court may well be secondary.
Judging from the photograph Corcoran also started to explore the northern sunken chamber but presumably abandoned the work [9, pl. 2, lower]; as noted Love cleared it out properly. He also discovered a paved hearth on the north side of the central court, close to the secondary wall (Ibid.).
For Part 2 of this text see Event ID 1039113.
