Archaeology Notes

Event ID 669413

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/669413

ND34SW 10 31804 41456 and 31823 41435

(ND 3180 4146) Broch (NR) (remains of)

OS 1:10,000 map, (1976)

The remains of the broch, almost entirely overgrown, stand on a grassy mound. Wall faces and a chamber have been exosed and suggest that the diameter of the broch was about 63ft and the wall thickness 12ft. 'The elevation of the structure is about 8ft.' Between the base of the broch and the edge of the mound on the E is a considerable area showing signs of buildings.

'On the SE a small isolated mound some 5ft in height is cut off from the main hillock by a trench about 28ft in width, and signs of a similar trench are visible on the N with a slight elevation beyond it.'

RCAHMS 1911.

The grass-covered remains of a broch, situated on an artificially scarped mound, as described by the RCAHMS. Minor quarrying in the S of the broch has revealed a further mural cell.

The isolated mound to the SE is apparently an extension of the natural mound on which the broch stands, and the trench between is probably the remains of a ditch which originally surrounded the broch mound. Vague traces of the ditch can also be seen to the N.

Resurveyed at 1:2500.

Visited by OS (N K B), 27 April 1967.

A broch and a possible cairn are situated on the leading edge of an E-facing terrace overlooking Loch Watenan, some 130m N of Watenan farmsteading. The broch (YARROWS04 206) measures 14m in diameter within a grass-grown wall at least 4m in thickness. The entrance appears to be on the SSE where the wall thickens and part of an intra-mural cell is exposed on its E side. This cell, which extends for a distance of 0.5m into the body of the wall and measures up to 0.8m in width, is still partly roofed with corbelled slabs and capstones. Another intra-mural cell, measuring 2.2m in length, has been exposed as a result of robbing on the E side of the broch. Its E side has been reduced to a low bank but its W side still stands to a height of 1.6m.

The broch stands on top of what is probably a low natural rise, but the collapse of its walls and the construction, subsequent collapse and degradation of structures around it have led to the formation of a mound measuring 48m from NE to SW by 38m transversely and about 2.5m in height. Now grass-grown, the foot of the mound has been truncated by ploughing and a track runs up onto its summit from the N. Other than the odd exposure of possible dry-stone walling, the only evidence of these structures is a rectangular stone-lined depression on the S side of the mound.

What may be a cairn (YARROWS04 207), comprising a grass-grown mound of earth and stones, stands 10m SE of the broch mound. Roughly D-shaped on plan, the mound measures 13.6m from NE to SW by at least 8m transversely and 1m in height. From the S round the W to the NW the foot of the mound has been truncated by ploughing. A low stony bank can be seen extending from the edge of the broch towards the SW side of the cairn. Whereas the depiction of the broch is annotated 'Pict's house' in antiquity type on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Caithness 1877, sheet xxix), the depiction of the cairn is in non-Roman type.

(YARROWS04 206, 207)

Visited by RCAHMS (AGCH), 26 May 2004.