Westray, Knowe Of Burristae

On the land side appearing as a large, rounded mound, to

seaward this displays a concave drystone wall-face of partly sea-

eroded broch interior. Of the base of the broch wall about one-

fifth circumference survives, largely concealed in debris. The

concave wall-face has a scarcement, 8in to 8.5in wide, surviving a

length of 12ft 6in. The arc gives an internal diameter of 26ft.

Below the scarcement, among the debris, the tops of several

upright slabs are visible within what must have been the circuit

of the wall. At each end of the surviving section both inner and

outer faces are lost in debris, but the projecting ends of courses

of the masonry are visible on the surface and at one point form an

arrangement like a stair. In the centre of the exposed wall-face

there is an opening 10in above the scarcement, 1ft 10.5in wide and

2ft 9in high from sill to lintel are heavy slabs. The jambs of

the opening are built and the sill and lintel are heavy slabs.

The opening gives on to an alcove with galleries, or sections of a

gallery, branching from it on either side, in the thickness of the

wall. [R1]

Remains of a broch as described by RCAMS and still known

locally as Knowe of Burristae. OS visit Jul 70.

The mound is over 4m high on the land side. Wall-face and

opening as described; the lintel is displaced and likely soon to

fall. Slab-structures are visible in the ground up to 25m from

the base of the mound. In particular, among the beach-boulders

on the sea side is a passage 0.7m wide running straight back into

what will have been the centre of the broch floor; the sides of

this passage are formed of orthostatic slabs

Information from Orkney SMR (RGL) Jun 81.

Knowe of Burristae HY 4317 4291 HY44SW 1

This broch-mound now stands hard against a low, exposed shore, and the sea has scoured away most of the interior so as to expose about a sixty-degree arc of concave interior wallface, opposite the sea. This structure displays various architectural features including a scarcement and, above this, a square opening into the intramural gallery. On the land side, the mound is over 4m high and very steep; slab-structures are detectable in the ground up to 25m from the base of the mound.

RCAHMS 1983, visited June 1981.

(RCAHMS 1946, ii, p. 350, No. 1034; OR 718).

A grass covered mound sited on the coast edge and a row of upright slabs on the beach constiute the visible remains of a broch which has already been badly damaged by coastal erosion. The surviving portion represents an area of about 10m by 5m of the central part of the interior. A feature previously described as a door lintel can now be more clearly seen; it may be part of an intra-mural cell but alternatively may be of more modern origin. The scarcement remains visible as does an internal partition, which extends on to the beach as a row of upright stones. The walls stand up to 4m above the level of the beach. The interior is filled with quantities of collapsed stone and deposits contain quantities of pottery, much of which is of a well-fired red fabric type. There is also much shell and bone present, including large fragments of antler. The site, although damaged, deserves consideration as a candidate for further work. Erosion has provided a natural section through the entire structure of the broch making it amenable to investigation and recording with a minimum of disturbance. The surviving deposits are well stratified, survive to 4m or more and are rich in artefactual and ecofactual inclusions.

Moore and Wilson, 1998

Coastal Zone Assessment Survey

1 KNOWE OF BURRISTAE

HY/43174293

Broch on flat ground on the SW shore of Westray, appearing now as a turfed mound on its landward side.

A stretch of concave inner wall face is exposed at one point on the seaward side, with a mass of rubble in front of it; the tops of several slabs on edge could be seen among this in 1928, presumably fragments of structures inside the central court. There is a lintelled void or doorway in the curved face [2, fig. 74], 57 cm (1 ft. 10.5 in.) wide and 84 cm (2 ft. 9 in.) high from sill to lintel, and which is c. 25 cm (10 in.) above a scarcement ledge. This opening leads to a mural gallery behind, which must be an upper one. The scarcement is 20.0-21.6 cm (8 - 8.5 in.) wide and is described as “projecting”; it is probably at least partly corbelled. The curvature of the wall suggests an interior diameter for the structure of 7.9 m (26 ft.), and one may assume the rest of it has been destroyed by the sea. The building should be a hollow-walled broch but the design of its ground level storey is unknown.

By 1990 the scarcement and lintelled opening had evidently collapsed [5].

Sources: 1. OS card HY44SW 1: 2. RCAHMS 1946, 2, no. 1034, 350 and figs. 73-4 (plates) and 454 (plan): 3. Hedges et al. 1987, 128-29: 4. Lamb 1983, 29: 5. Discovery and Excavation in Scotland 1990, 45.

E W MacKie 2002