Orkney Smr Note

Date July 1970

Event ID 619312

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Orkney Smr Note

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/619312

On the land side appearing as a large, rounded mound, to

seaward this displays a concave drystone wall-face of partly sea-

eroded broch interior. Of the base of the broch wall about one-

fifth circumference survives, largely concealed in debris. The

concave wall-face has a scarcement, 8in to 8.5in wide, surviving a

length of 12ft 6in. The arc gives an internal diameter of 26ft.

Below the scarcement, among the debris, the tops of several

upright slabs are visible within what must have been the circuit

of the wall. At each end of the surviving section both inner and

outer faces are lost in debris, but the projecting ends of courses

of the masonry are visible on the surface and at one point form an

arrangement like a stair. In the centre of the exposed wall-face

there is an opening 10in above the scarcement, 1ft 10.5in wide and

2ft 9in high from sill to lintel are heavy slabs. The jambs of

the opening are built and the sill and lintel are heavy slabs.

The opening gives on to an alcove with galleries, or sections of a

gallery, branching from it on either side, in the thickness of the

wall. [R1]

Remains of a broch as described by RCAMS and still known

locally as Knowe of Burristae. OS visit Jul 70.