Archaeology Notes

Event ID 651815

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/651815

NC96NE 17 9894 6570.

(NC 9894 6570) Achbuiligan Tulloch (Brough) (NR)

OS 6"map, Caithness, 2nd ed., (1907)

The ruins of the broch of Achbuiligan Tulloch are covered by a grassy mound. The area covered by the broch measures approximately 60ft and the depression marking the interior about 27ft, but no wall faces are exposed. On the SW the slope is steep and has an elevation of 13ft, while from the opposite direction the ground rises gradually. On the N, the ruin has been pillaged to some extent (RCAHMS 1911). It was opened at the top some time ago (Name Book 1873).

RCAHMS 1911; Name Book 1873.

This turf-covered stony mound survives to a height of 4.5m and measures 48.0m N-S by 30.0m transversely. There is an oval depression 0.7m deep in the top which may be a result of excavation. The E side of the mound has been mutilated recently where a modern dry stone construction has been made from the spoil. A facing of dry stone slabs, 0.3m high, is exposed to the NE. This feature is more suggestive of a cairn than a broch.

Resurveyed at 1:2500.

Visited by OS (N K B) 24 November 1964.

(NC 9894 6570) Achbuiligan Tullock (NAT) Broch (NR) (remains of)

OS 6"map, (1967)

Achbuiligan Tullock is a turf-covered, elongated mound measuring 45.0m NNE-SSW by 26.0m transversely, and rising gently from the N to a summit, 4.5m high, towards the S end. The summit area is disturbed, probably by surface quarrying. Soil erosion at the base reveals a content predominantly of earth suggesting that the mound may be in part natural, its profile having been sharpened by ploughing around the edge. In the SE side at the base is an arc of walling; this has not the heavy build of a broch wall, but is possibly a revetment of an outwork or it may be relatively recent. Apart from this possible revetment there is no evidence to classify this mound as the remains of a broch.

Visited by OS (N K B) 8 October 1981.