Archaeology Notes

Event ID 655868

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/655868

ND35SE 5 3762 5140.

(ND 3762 5140) The Pap (NAT) Broch (NR)

OS 6" map, (1968)

Broch - 'Hillhead Broch' or 'The Pap', Broadhaven was excavated by Sir Francis Tress Barry in 1903. From the plan then made, it can be seen that the outside of the broch to the E and some 30ft distant from the entrance were two converging passages, each about 17ft in length to the point of convergence. Inward another 7 1/2ft was a 5 1/2ft thick outer casing wall, and on the left side of the passage here was a 2ft wide entrance with a flight of six steps leading down to an 8ft deep well. The broch wall itself was 13ft thick, and on either side of the entrance- passage was a guard-chamber. The diameter of the inner court was 30ft, but reduced some 2 to 3ft be some still remaining portions of a facing wall. There was a chamber in the N and S sides of the broch wall. Internally, the height of the wall was about 9ft. In its present (1910) condition, the interior of the broch is largely filled with debris, beneath which the wall face is hidden. On the exterior towards the W, the wall is visible for a height of about 2ft.

Found in this broch and now in the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland (NMAS) is the top of a human skull in which are three small perforations placed so as to form a rough equilateral triangle.

RCAHMS 1911, visited 1910.

Numerous small finds from the Hillhead Broch were donated to the NMAS by the representatives of the late Sir Francis Tress Barry in 1908.

Proc Soc Antiq Scot 1909.

A badly mutilated mound of earth and stones some 18m in diameter and 1.3m in height standing on rising ground in the corner of a cultivated field, is all that remains of this broch. The hollowed centre of the mound measures about 13m in diameter. A portion of the outer face of the broch wall, some 0.1m high, can be seen on the NE side.

Various fragments of stone, shells and animal bone found in or near this broch are in Wick Museum, with several photographs of the excavations. Revised at 1:2500.

Visited by OS (W D J) 21 April 1962.

Badly overgrown but part of the outer wall is visible.

C E Batey 1981.

No change to the previous field report.

Visited by OS (J B) 18 August 1982.

Bone dice found at unknown location in broch; GA 846. Numbered 3, 5,

4, 6. 33 x 10mm.

RMS GA 847. Solid bone. All surfaces are extremely worn, but on three of the four faces some markings are visible. It is impossible to be certain that all markings on any one face have been recognised. Some dots (probably all) enclosed by a circle. 47 x 8mm.

Proc Soc Antiq Scot 1909; D V Clarke 197; E W MacKie 1971.

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: NMS.

A Heald and A Jackson 2000