Archaeology Notes
Event ID 655356
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Archaeology Notes
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/655356
ND36SE 3.00 3541 6120.
(ND 3541 6120) Whitegate Broch (NR)
OS 1:10,000 map, (1973)
Whitegate Broch has an internal diameter of 26ft and a wall thickness of about 13ft. The wall remains to a height of about 3ft.
The slab settings in the central court and the chamber in the wall opposite the entrance are secondary, as also is the series of outbuildings through which the entrance is prolonged.
The finds from the broch include grain-rubbers and rotary querns and fragments of a large jar of coarse, unglazed pottery from one of the internal, secondary structures. This has been reconstructed and is now in the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland (NMAS), as are the finds from the excavation of the broch by Sir Francis Tress Barry. Anderson notes the remains of the foundations of an oblong, rectangular building within a few yards of the broch. This has been 45ft long by 24ft broad with dry-built walls about 4ft thick. This building seems to compare with the houses of the Viking settlement at Freswick (ND36NE 4), although as Childe points out, these were probably the fore-runners of the 'black-house type', in which case the building might simply be one of these.
Probably similar buildings are also noted at Keiss Broch (ND36SE 20 and the Road Broch (ND36SW 1).
A Young 1964; RCAHMS 1911, visited 1910; Proc Soc Antiq Scot 1893; 1909; J Anderson 1901; V G Childe 1943.
Whitegate Broch is as described above and in a ruinous condition. Resurveyed at 1:2500.
Visited by OS (R D) 14 September 1965.
Internal diameter c.8m, walls c.4m x 1m high. Located on the coastal pasture, 100m N of Keiss broch. Excavated by Tress Barry and now in a ruinous and overgrown condition. WIC 099.
C Batey, Caithness Coastal Survey 1981
Whitegate Broch is as described by the previous authorities; the excavation was never back-filled and the walling is still exposed. The dry-stone structures noted by Batey a short distance to the SW and NE of the broch form no intelligible pattern and their date and purpose remain uncertain.
Visited by OS (N K B) 22 July 1982
ND36SE 3.01 ND 3549 6121 Structure
ND36SE 3.02 ND 3545 6117 Structure
ND 3 6 (area) As part of a wider study of Iron Age Caithness, the broch settlements at Everley (ND 3699 6828), Keiss Harbour (ND 3531 6108), Keiss Road (ND 3488 6151), Whitegate (ND 3541 6120), Skirza (ND 3940 6844), and Hillhead (ND 3762 5140) were recorded by total station survey in June 2000. Aspects of the artefactual assemblage uncovered during 19th-century excavations by Laing and Tress Barry were also studied.
Sponsor: National Museums of Scotland (NMS).
A Heald and A Jackson 2000
ND 3541 6120 As part of a wider study of Iron Age Caithness, four weeks of excavation of the Atlantic roundhouse and outbuilding complex at Whitegate took place in July. The site was first excavated by Sir Francis Tress Barry in 1892-3. He uncovered a number of structural types including a 'broch' or Atlantic roundhouse and numerous outbuildings. Finds were few but included human remains, amber beads and pottery. Recent work on other sites excavated by Tress Barry, particularly Tofts, Everley, has suggested that Barry may have left untouched archaeology on some of the Caithness sites and that reinvestigation was a worthwhile exercise. With this in mind a team from the National Museums of Scotland, AOC Archaeology Group and Nottingham University undertook trial excavations, following on from a programme of survey. Trenches were confined to the roundhouse wall and interior and two of the outbuildings. A laser-scan survey was carried out by Dr Graeme Cavers.
Thanks to the local community for their continuing support, the Caithness Archaeological Trust and Historic Scotland for permission to excavate.
Sponsor: NMS, AOC Archaeology, Nottingham University and Caithness and Sutherland Enterprise.
Andrew Heald, John Barber and Jon Henderson, 2006.
