Archaeology Notes

Event ID 655884

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/655884

ND35SE 6 3871 5198

(ND 3871 5198) Cairn of Elsay (NAT)

Broch (NR)

OS 6" map (1968).

Finds from the broch were donated to the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland (NMAS) by the representatives of the late Sir Francis Tress Barry in 1908.

Proc Soc Antiq Scot 1909.

Broch, 'Cairn of Elsay', Staxigoe, was excavated and planned by the late Sir Francis Tress Barry. The wall was approximately 17ft thick, enclosing an inner area with a diameter of 29ft. Any outbuildings which may exist around the broch have not been uncovered. The plan shows an outer casing wall on the S, through which an entrance passes, but this is not now apparent.

RCAHMS 1911.

The broch is a grass-covered mound situated on level ground close to the shore. It is 18.0m in diameter, has a wall 4.8m thick and stands to a maximum height of 2.7m above the level of the ground at the base of the mound. A fragment of the inner face of the wall is visible on the E side only, but the outer face is exposed to a height of 1.2m and for a length of 7.0m on the NE side; fragments are also visible on the SE side.

The entrance, in the SE, is 0.7m wide, its walls exposed to a height of 1.2m at the outer end.

The court is now a rubble-strewn hollow 2.6m below the top of the broch except for a large, stony, grass-covered mound 1.2m high which extends from the centre to NE of the entrance. In the centre of the court is an upright stone slab 1.0m high, 0.4m wide and 0.1m thick.

No trace of any outbuildings was seen around the broch.

Resurveyed at 1:2500.

Visited by OS (E G C), 22 April 1963.

Wall thickness 5.18m, diameter 8.84m.

C E Batey 1981.

No change to the previous field report.

Visited by OS (J B), 18 August 1982.

Scheduled as Cairn of Elsay, broch, Staxigoe.

Information from Historic Scotland, scheduling document dated 12 August 2005.