Loch Of Watsness
Broch (Iron Age)
Site Name Loch Of Watsness
Classification Broch (Iron Age)
Canmore ID 230
Site Number HU15SE 1
NGR HU 1754 5066
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/230
- Council Shetland Islands
- Parish Walls And Sandness
- Former Region Shetland Islands Area
- Former District Shetland
- Former County Shetland
HU15SE 1 1754 5066.
(HU 1752 5068) Brough (NR) (Site of)
OS 6" map, Shetland, 2nd ed., (1903)
A low-lying, grass-covered promontory utilised as the site of a broch. A setting of large stones has been laid round it, close to the water's edge, and the greater part of the area within has been occupied by the broch, with a cluster of outbuildings as its south side. Extensive quarrying has reduced the remains to foundations level but the over-all diameter was probably about 50 feet.
RCAHMS 1946, visited 1931
The remains of this broch and outbuildings are as described by RCAHMS. The broch would seem to have an overall diameter of 15.0m but the outbuildings are too mutilated for accurate survey. To the SE of the broch are the footings of a stone-walled enclosure, possibly of later date.
Resurveyed at 1/2500.
Visited by OS (WDJ) 12 June 1968
Publication Account (2002)
HU15 2 LOCH OF WATSNESS (‘Broch of Ness’)
HU/175507
Probable broch in Walls and Sandness, on a low promontory projecting into the loch. The broch and its outbuildings have been reduced to foundation level by quarrying [2], and its overall diameter may have been c. 15m [1].
Sources: 1. OS card HU 15 SE 1: RCAHMS 1946 vol. 3, no. 1605, 146 (no plan): 3. Spence 1899, 52.
E W MacKie 2002
