Pricing Change
New pricing for orders of material from this site will come into place shortly. Charges for supply of digital images, digitisation on demand, prints and licensing will be altered.
Publication Account
Date 2007
Event ID 587051
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/587051
NG33 1 ARD an t' SABHAIL
NG/3180 3333
This probable ground-galleried broch stands in a dominating position on a rocky summit of crags amid rugged moorland and about 180m (600 ft) above the sea and half a mile from it (visited 20/4/63). There is a fine view of Loch Bracadale to the north with the twin peaks of MacLeod's Tables beyond [4, pl. 1]. The site towers high above the adjacent valley in which are modern settlements and farmland. Swanson has a good plan of the broch [3, 896].
Description
Few of the architectural features are now visible; like most Skye brochs this one is built of irregular blocks of igneous rock many of which have collapsed into featureless rubble. The main entrance is on the east side but no door-frame is visible; it is about 1.15m wide at the outer end and 0.9m at the inner [3]. A roofless oval guard cell, measuring about 7 ft (2.13m) long by 5 ft 2 in (1.57m) is on the left side of the passage; the door to this from the entrance is visible. There is another doorway in the right wall of the passage which leads to another guard cell or to the intra-mural gallery [3].
In 1921 there were clear traces of a narrow mural gallery on the wallhead to the left of (clockwise from) the entrance and a short length on the right side as well; the former has since disappeared but the latter is still visible [3]. On the south-east, at about 7 o'clock, was a scarcement of the ledge-type on the inner wallface and 9 in (25cm) wide, but this too has disappeared. The inner face then stood 2 ft (60cm) above the ledge [2]. The gallery on the wallhead behind may be at ground level since there was no sign of any covering lintels. There are traces of a doorway into the wall at about 10 o'clock which were not noted by the Commission; this could well be the stair door. A probably modern revetment can be seen from about 7-9 o'clock and presumably obscures the inner face here [3].
Fragments of an outer defensive wall can be seen on the south and south-east and a gully in the north-east side of the surrounding crags has been blocked by a stone breastwork immediately below the broch [3, plan]. The main outer wall abuts the broch at about 10 o'clock and runs south-east to the crag where it turns north-east along its edge for a short distance. There is an outer entrance here. Traces of enclosures of uncertain date are on the south-east [3, 896, plan].
Dimensions
Internal diameter 34.5-36.51 ft (10.5-11.1m): walls 9-12 ft (2.1-3.6m) thick. Wall proportion approx. 39%.
Sources: NMRS site no. NG 33 SW 1: 2. RCAHMS 1928. 141, no. 418 and fig. 200: 3. Swanson 1985, 893-94 and plan: 4. MacSween 1984-85, 41, no. 1, fig. 1 and pl. 1.
E W MacKie 2007
