Archaeology Notes

Event ID 651327

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/651327

NC80SE 4.00 8704 0137.

NC80SE 4.01 NC 8704 0137 Incised Stone

NC80SE 4.02 NC 870 013 Worked Shale

(NC 8704 0137) Carn Liath (NAT) Broch (NR)

OS 6"map, (1964)

Carn Liath is an excavated broch, measuring 30ft internal diameter within a wall 18ft thick at the entrance in the E and 12ft average internal height. The entrance passage is 6ft high and roofed with flags and contains a door check with bar-holes either side with an entrance to a guard cell on the N side.

Within the broch an entrance in the SE arc leads to a mural stair of twenty-one steps. In the middle of the interior is a sunken chamber 8ft long, 6ft broad and 6ft deep; secondary walls encumber the internal area.

Outside the broch the entrance is approached from the S by a covered and flagged passage, 12ft long, 3ft wide and 4 1/2ft high. The outer lintel of this passage bears cup-marks on its upper face (RCAHMS 1911) It also displays linear markings which appear to be artificial (J M Joass 1873) Around the broch are the remains of encircling walls and outbuildings (RCAHMS 1911).

Finds from the broch include mortars and querns, discs of sandstone and shale, steatite cups, a long-handled comb, a whalebone, two bronze plates, a rusted iron blade and fragments of coarse native pottery. Outside the broch was found a cruciform-shaped silver brooch, 3ins long. It is clear that its design is strongly influenced by the Roman tradition, but conversely, the saltire decorating the arm tends to connect it with some of the silverware found at Norrie's Law, Fife (NO40NW 3), silverware dated 7th century. It is possible that the brooch offers a link between provincial Roman design and the symbols characterising the sculptured stones of N and E Scotland (J Anderson 1901 and J Curle 1932). Robertson states that the brooch may be of Roman or native manufacture, but it is not earlier than the 4th century. (A S Robertson 1970)

RCAHMS 1911, visited 1909; T A Wise 1881; J M Joass 1873; J Anderson 1883 and 1901; J Curle 1932; A S Robertson 1970.

Re-surveyed at 1:2500.

Visited by OS (E G C) 7 April 1962.

Carn Liath (name verified), a broch situated on a raised beach and approached by steep slopes on all sides; it is basically as described by the RCAHMS (RCAHMS 1911). There has however been some change since their report, due in the main, to deterioration and, in recent years, to tidying up by the DOE; the interior has been cleared out, the sunken chamber filled in and the floor levelled off; the entrance to the guard chamber has been walled up as has the immediate access to the mural stairway, whose approach passage has partially collapsed; the bar holes are no longer evident and the entrance is un-lintelled inward from the door-check; the approach passage from outside the broch is deroofed and the cup-marked lintel (the linear markings on this could suggest Ogham lettering) lies displaced nearby.

Internally, and only readily seen in the E half of the broch is a scarcement 2.2m above present floor level. A secondary wall 0.4m thick, lines inner face of broch wall to scarcement height in the S half; elsewhere, round the inner periphery, it is much reduced and shows signs of recent restoration.

Outside the broch in the NW quarter are remains possibly of an encircling defensive outwork but the general area is confused by later structures of a domestic type which abut onto the broch and clutter its immediate environs.

Visited by OS (J M) 20 November 1975.

Finds from the broch are in Dunrobin Museum (Accession nos: 1868.3-26) and the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland (NMAS, Accession ns: FR486; GA 105-111)

Information in TS catalogue of Dunrobin museum and NMAS catalogue from A S Henshall.

During a short trial within the Guardianship area the 1972 spoil tip was removed from the E side of the broch and the easterly approach passage was partially cleared. In the latter a well-preserved stepped paving was revealed, flanked and partially overlain by a wall of drystone masonry edged with several courses of dressed blocks. The excavated area has since been consolidated.

P Love 1984.

Excavation prior to consolidation at this site examined outworks to the NW of the broch. Despite thorough Victorian disturbance, a tentative chronology was established for the site. The Bronze Age was represented by a beaker fragment and later cist with food vessel and shale washer necklace. Pre-broch settlement, shown by post holes, predated the construction of the broch and attendant ring wall, while later Iron Age activity included the division into outbuildings of the area between the broch and outer wall by the addition of cross walls. A previously unrecorded circuit wall was identified downslope of the main outworks, and the site produced evidence of shale and iron working.

P Love 1986.

Further excavation took place in 1987, in parallel with masonry consolidation. A semi-circular stake defined feature was found around the Bronze Age cist discovered in 1986. This was apparently originally a complete circle, but had been truncated during scarping of the mound prior to the construction of the Iron Age outer wall. The new wall discovered on the outer slope of the broch mound last year was followed round to the N, and was found to be of two-phase construction. The entrance passage of the broch was cleared to the original paved level, and the guard cell and outer 'dog kennel' at the entrance were cleared of their modern fill prior to consolidation for display.

P Love 1987.

Negatives for Corcoran's 1972 excavations were accessioned in May, 2001.

S Winlow 2001.