Field Visit
Date 25 September 1953
Event ID 926091
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/926091
Broch (?), Crummag Head (Inventory No. 143)
Since the Inventory description was written, a lighthouse and its appurtences have been built on the site in spite of the fact that the fort was included in the list of monuments deemed most worthy of preservation. The ditch and outer bank are still unaffected , but the E half of the stone structure has been destroyed by the construction of the water tank and storehouses. The masonry is very large and broch-like, but the thickness of the wall cannot be precisely determined since the inner face is nowhere visible. On the W half the surviving outer face stands 5-6 ft below the centre of the enclosure; the foundations of the inner face were presumably at a higher level and have now been removed. It seems possible that the wall was about 15 ft thick all round (the so-called overlap on the NE does not exist: all that has happened is that some facing stones have fallen outwards) and I would not dismiss the possibility that the structure is a broch. Excavation is still possible in the W half of the walled enclosure and it would be valuable to obtain the thickness of the wall here.
Visited by RCAHMS 25 September 1953.
