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Publication Account

Date 2007

Event ID 587595

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Publication Account

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/587595

NS94 1 CALLA

NS/9911 4884

This possible broch in Carnwath stands about 650m south of Calla farmhouse on a low rocky knoll (274m OD) at the south-east end of Calla Bank. In 1972 only the tops of a few stones could be seen protruding through the long grass that covers the site. The plan shows the features that were visible in 1952, when the site was discovered and planned by the RCAHMS. At that time the site had long been known locally as the 'old quarry' and was already in a dilapidated condition, both the broch wall and its enclosing wall being reduced to low grass-grown stony banks.

The site is classed here only as a possible broch – even though there are enough facing stones remaining to confirm the shape and proportions – because brochs are comparatively rare in this part of the world.

By clearing back the turf and rubble from a number of facing-stones, it was possible to establish that the round building measured about 11.6m in diameter within a wall varying from 4.9m to 5.8m in thickness. Excavation would be required to establish the position of the entrance and of any intra-mural structures.

An outer wall forms an oval enclosure containing the broch, and two long stretches of the outer face of this survive on the north-west and south-east respectively; there are no visible indications of the thickness of the wall or of the location of the entrance. The outer facing-stones are set at a distance from the broch wall of as little as 4.0m on the south-south-east and as much as 12.2m on the north.

Finds (recovered at the time of the original survey and in the National Museum): 1 roughly circular piece of sandstone, 56mm by 50mm and 14mm thick, 1 piece of cannel coal, 106mm by 80mm and 10mm thick (with an incomplete hour-glass perforation near the centre) and 1 rough disc of cannel-coal, 25mm by 23mm and 6mm thick, also with an hour-glass perforation near the centre.

Dimensions: overall diameter about 11.6m; wall thickness 4.9m to 5.8m.

Sources: 1. NMRS site NS 94 NE 9: 2. RCAHMS 1978, 109-10, no. 244 and fig. 67: MacInnes 1985, 114.

E W MacKie 2007

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