Archaeology Notes

Event ID 661042

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/661042

NH54SW 9 5414 4204

(NH 5414 4204) Castle Spynie (NAT)

Broch (NR)

OS 25" map, (1969)

Castle Spynie is described by Feachem (R W Feachem 1963) as a broch with outworks, and by Anderson (G Anderson 1857) and MacKenzie (G Mackenzie 1857) as a fort.

Anderson states that from the middle of the N side of the fort itself are indications of a second wall, with below it a ditch which curves around the whole of the NE and E sides. This ditch has an outer breastwork composed of a line of large upright stones. About a dozen pieces of vitrifaction were found between these stones and the fort. Below this is another ditch, four or five feet deep, fronted by a mound of earth and stones.

G Anderson 1857; G Mackenzie 1857

Castle Spynie is a near-circular dun, measuring about 19.5m overall, occupying the summit of a prominent rocky hill. The outer face is visible intermittently amidst tumble around the whole periphery to a maximum height of 1.0m, and the inner face can be seen in the SW arc to a height of 0.8m, indicating a wall thickness of about 4.0m. The entrance in the SW, 1.0m wide, has been cleared of stones, and the SE side rebuilt.

Around the NE and SW sides of the dun at a lower level, are traces of outworks, overgrown with bracken and trees, which appear to have connected with natural out-crop and cliff to form a complete, encircling, outer defence. In the NE is a curving line of boulders, some of which are displaced, fronted by two walls which are reduced to stony banks of indeterminate thickness. Only at the extreme S end of the outer wall where it connects with the cliff can the outer face be seen. Nothing is visible of the ditches described by Anderson and MacKenzie, nor of the second wall from the middle of the N side of the dun.

Some 30.0m SW of the dun is a curving ditch, c. 4.0m wide and c. 1.0m maximum depth, the N part of which incorporates outcrop on its inner side. Immediately to the N of this is a discontinuious line of at least four boulders which partially block the only logical means of access to the dun.

There is no trace of vitrifaction on or around the site, and the present remains of the dun itself indicate beyond doubt that it was not a timber-laced structure.

See 1:1250 enlargement.

Visited by OS (N K B), 9 December 1970.

Broch, Castle Spynie: The remains of what is probably a broch occupy the summit of a rocky knoll 600 m WNW of Leanach. It measures 11 m in diameter within a wall 4.3 m thick; the entrance is on the SW. There are outworks on the N and SW.

RCAHMS 1979 .

Castle Spynie has some of the prerequisites of a broch in that it is roughly circular, 19.0 m in diameter over all and has an undoubted wall thickness of 4.2 m in the SSE. However, the outer face of the wall lacks in the base courses any massive or large stones expected in supporting a relatively high wall; also the wall exterior is grounded on the slope about 1m below interior level, a mode of construction commonly observed in duns. Furthermore, the amount of debris around and at the base of the structure is commensurate with a dun rather that a broch.

On balance, in the absence of evidence of mural chambers and / or galleries, a dun is the appropriate classification.

Visited by OS (J M), 6 February 1981.