Archaeology Notes

Event ID 647074

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/647074

HY73NW 2 7092 3794.

(HY 7092 3794) Wasso (NR)

OS 6" map, Orkney, 2nd ed., (1900).

The Broch of Wasso, excavated by Dryden in 1868 (H Dryden, folio 1 B1 1879), and described by Dr Wood as being built of large flat stones, is about 15' in height, and upwards of 180' in circumference at the base (From a letter by Dr Wood to OS). It now exists as a stony mound, grass-grown, and extensively quarried, with nothing visible to suggest its character. A polished bone implement 4 1/2ins. long from 'Wasshow' is in NMAS (GA8).

New Statistical Account (NSA) 1845; National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland (NMAS) 1892; RCAHMS 1946, visited 1928.

All that can be seen of the broch construction towards the summit of the mound, still known as "Wasso", is the N arc of the inner face for a distance of 2.5m and a height of 1.1m, and one or two contiguous stones also in the N arc, which, if the outer face, indicate a wall thickness of about 4.4m. The inner face is incorporated in a crude, recent structure, within which is one of the large slabs lying at an angle, mentioned by the RCAHMS. The mound is about 60.0m N-S by about 44.0m E-W and 5.0m high,its size indicating the presence of other structures, probably a post-broch settlement, within it.

Re-surveyed at 1/2500.

Visited by OS (NKB) 14 July 1970.