Breckness

HY20NW 009 2247 0928.

A broch, now almost entirely demolished by coast erosion, stood near the ruins of Breckness House (Orkney 106 NW 6). About 18 ft of the inner face of the curving wall can still be seen rising against the bank for a height of some 7 feet, the outer face being below ground level.

In 1867 the remains an internal diameter of 44 feet with a wall 12 feet thick, but the scale of contemporary survey showed the diameter as 36 feet. The broken ends of a strong outer wall can be seen in the face of the bank near its crest on either side of the main structure.

A small kitchen midden deposit was seen low down at shore level on the east.

S Laing 1870; RCAHMS 1946, visited 2nd August 1928.

The remains of the broch at HY 2247 0928 are as described above: the wall of the broch is apparently just over 3.0 metres thick. Traces of midden material were discovered at HY 2250 0929.

Surveyed at 1/2500.

Visited by OS (RD) 18 September 1964.

Sea erosion and cliff collapse has revealed evidence of structures related to this broch.

B Smith 1985.

Further erosion exposed burials associated with chapel site HY20NW 6 dug into the masonry and intra-mural passage of the broch.

B Smith and D Lorimer 1987.

HY 225 093 Monitoring of coastal erosion affecting archaelogical sites immediately N of Stromness, showed that the well to this broch which was revaled in 1992, had been partly removed by the sea duirng the winter and spring storms of this year. In one day during the summer of 1993 the remaining well fill was excavated and the structure was recorded. Finds included bones of birds, land and sea mammals, and human, as well as stone and bone aretfacts and some sherds of pottery. Located centrally, beneath the surviving remains of the broch tower, the well had been cut from bedrock and served by stone steps at its E side. One roofing slab was found intact, indiacting the roofing structure had collapsed during the use of the broch tower.

In the cliff section W of the broch the profile of a 'U'-shaped rock-cut ditch had also been exposed. This is interpreted as part of the Iron Age settlement defences and was also recorded.

B B Smith and T Ballin 1993.

HY 225 093 Exposed fragments of human bone were discovered high up in the E-W cliff section immediately E of the surviving fragment of the broch tower. These were uncovered until their position and form could be discerned. This showed two partially revealed and apparently intact skeletons laid horizontally and in line on an E-W orientation, with heads facing W. The skull of the E skeleton lay between the feet of the W skeleton. Both skeletons lay directly on angular vacuous rubble, forming the fill of the outer broch wall, and in a context of small angular rubble and dark brown soil. Once this was diagnosed, excavation ceased, the exposure was photographed for SMR, some exposed bone removed and the exposure was buried.

A jumbled cache of human bone was found nearby in the cliff section behind some casually placed vertical rubble. It was clear that these were not in their original position, and had been placed there recently presumably as a result of discovery in similar circumstances. No trace of their original position was apparent.

Both sets of bone were deposited in Tankerness House Museum (accession no: THM 1995.16.1), who will arrange their examination.

The E-W orientation of the burials, with heads to the W, suggests a Christian provenance, possibly as part of a burial ground associated with an extraparochial chapel and predating the now ruined Breckness House on the same site.

Significant settlement remains were noted for SMR on both sides of the broch tower extending 20-30m in either direction in the cliff face. These comprised various stretches and sequences of drystone walling and floors of indeterminate form with rubble and midden deposits. At the W extremety, three slab-sided floor drains were noted running N into the cliff section at a very high level, and the cut for the broch ditch was noted to the W of the broch tower, with rubble infill. A substantial broch and post-broch settlement of the typical Orkney type is clearly indicated.

No distinct pattern was evident on the grassed cliff-top which forms part of the grounds of Breckness House and the supposed chapel site. Finds of pottery and slag were made from the probable broch-related deposits E of the tower, at a low level close to natural. These were deposited in Tankerness House Museum (accession no: THM 1995.16.2 and 16.3).

Recording for SMR was also undertaken by Julie Gibson.

D Lynn and I Campbell 1995.