Yell, Aywick, Brough Of Stoal
Broch (Iron Age)(Possible), Fort (Period Unassigned)
Site Name Yell, Aywick, Brough Of Stoal
Classification Broch (Iron Age)(Possible), Fort (Period Unassigned)
Alternative Name(s) The Snuti
Canmore ID 1363
Site Number HU58NW 1
NGR HU 5455 8730
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/1363
- Council Shetland Islands
- Parish Yell
- Former Region Shetland Islands Area
- Former District Shetland
- Former County Shetland
HU58NW 1 5455 8730.
(HU 5458 8727) Brough (OE) (Site of).
O.S.6"map, Shetland, 2nd ed.,(1900).
The site of a broch, on the edge of perpendicular cliffs at the end of a headland. The position is exceptionally striking, but only fragmentary remains of the structure survive, the rest having been washed away by the sea.
Three unusually strong lines of defence have been drawn across the neck of the promontory at a point where it is only 65' wide. The ramparts, mainly of earth, are separated from one another by deep ditches, and such portions of them as are still standing are widely spread, rising, nevertheless, to an average height of 7', with a maximum of 9'. There are no signs of a passage through them, but it is possible that the entrance may have been at one or other of the ends and that it has disappeared as a result of erosion.
RCAHMS 1946. Visited 1931.
The remains of a broch and three outer ramparts generally as described by RCAHM except that further erosion has taken place.
Visited by OS(NKB) 12th May 1969.
(HU 5454 8730) Fort (NR) (Remains of)
OS 1:10000, (1972)
This is probably the remains of a promontory fort. R Lamb has classified this as a fort and instructions sent to OS for 1:10000 map scale February 1994 and 1:50000 Landranger map to annotate maps as fort (NR).
Information from RCAHMS (DE) February 1998
Publication Account (2002)
HU58 3 STOAL ('Aywick') HU/546873
Possible broch on Yell I., situated on the edge of sheer cliffs at the end of a headland; only fragments remain after extensive erosion by the sea. Three very strong defensive earthen ramparts, separated by deep ditches, run across the neck of the promontory, at a point where it is only 19.83 m (65 ft.) wide.
Sources: 1. OS card HU 58 north-west 1: 2. RCAHMS 1946, vol. 3, no. 1717, 161-2. 4.
E W MacKie 2002
Note (4 March 2016 - 1 November 2016)
The Brough of Stoal is situated on a precipitous promontory which is under active erosion. Usually interpreted as the site of a broch with outworks, Raymond Lamb was not convinced that the complex of stone structures that he observed in the remaining fragment of the interior necessarily included a broch (1980, 84), thus identifying it as the remains of a promontory fort with a spectacular belt of defences barring access across the neck on the NNW. Some 25m in depth, the belt comprises at least three ramparts and ditches, while Lamb also noted on the cliff-edge on the ENE the possible remains of a low bank on the counterscarp of the shallow outer ditch (Lamb 1980. 48, fig 17). The ramparts are impressive, rising over 2m in height above the bottoms of the adjacent ditches, and the middle rampart to as much as 3.7m in height, but they are not necessarily all contemporary and the third is clearly set at angle to the inner two, its line splaying towards the NE. The entrance does not survive, and presumably approached across the neck on the NNW along either the ENE or WSW margin. Within the interior, which has been reduced to an area measuring no more than 32m in length from NNW to SSE by 15m transversely (0.04ha), there is a mound of grass-grown rubble, but whether this is includes the remains of a broch or is some other structure can only be demonstrated by excavation.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 01 November 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC4192
