Archaeology Notes

Event ID 651868

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/651868

NC85SE 1 8993 5095.

(NC 8993 5095) The Borg (NAT) Broch (NR)

OS 6"map, (1963)

The remains of a broch situated on a rocky knoll surrounded in part by marshy ground, the wall surviving to an average height of 3.3m. Internally, the broch is oval in plan, the east wall, containing the entrance, having been strengthened by the addition of an extra 2.7m of walling, giving diameters of 9.6m N-S and 6.6m E-W. The wall measures 6.7m in thickness in the east, 4m in the south and 5m in the west. In 1909 a guard chamber was visible, as well as a possibly secondary passage, 3m to 3.3m long and 0.6m wide leading to the inner wall 5.4m south of the entrance. Miss Young notes "straight walling" possibly indicating a wall chamber 1.5m from the entrance. A large enclosure, probably secondary, is attached to the NE arc of the broch and other walls spring from the south and west sides. Rectangular foundations measuring about 9m by 4m lie close to the broch, one to the SW and the other to the SE.

RCAHMS 1911, visited 1909; A Young 1964; Visited by OS (W D J) 28 April 1960.

The broch is generally as described above. The interior appears to have been originally circular in plan, about 9.4m in diameter. Secondary use has altered this to the present oval plan, by enlarging the N side and extending the entrance into the broch interior. A rubble-filled depression on the N side of the entrance passage probably indicates the guard chamber. The passage to the south of the entrance was not seen; a recent shelter set in the wall is the only visible structural remains in this arc. A short stretch of wall facing to the north of the entrance, above the collapsed chamber and possibly forming part of it, could be the "straight walling" noted by A Young (1964). The'rectangular foundation' noted to the SE of the broch appears to be a fortuitous arr- angement of tumble. A shallow ditch lies outside the SE arc of the broch.

Published survey (6") revised.

Visited by OS (J B) 9 June 1977.