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Stronsay, Hunton
Broch (Iron Age)(Possible)
Site Name Stronsay, Hunton
Classification Broch (Iron Age)(Possible)
Canmore ID 3313
Site Number HY62NE 6
NGR HY 6534 2754
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/3313
- Council Orkney Islands
- Parish Stronsay
- Former Region Orkney Islands Area
- Former District Orkney
- Former County Orkney
HY62NE 6 6534 2754
(HY 6534 2754) Erd House (NR)
(Site of) (NAT)
OS 6" map, Orkney, 2nd ed., (1900).
The site of a broch which was partly excavated by Petrie on 27th July 1863, (Information from G Petrie Mss notebook No.7 in the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland [NMAS]) who exposed the entrance passage, with doorchecks, through a 13'6" thick wall. A local resident, who visited the site soon after Petrie, stated that the passage was completely cleared but that he gained admission to a single chamber. He also reported that cockle-shells, bones and food-refuse were constantly being turned up on the knoll outside, which was doubtless a kitchen-midden, but he had heard of no artifacts, although a spindle- whorl is known to have been ploughed up. The site was under cultivation in 1928, and no trace remained on the surface.
RCAHMS 1946, visited 1928.
No trace on a rise in a pasture field. The farmer reports that shells are still turned up when the field is ploughed.
Visited by OS (RL), 13 July 1970.
A slight rise in an arable field is the only surface indication of the spot where Petrie explored a broch in 1863.
RCAHMS 1984, visited June 1979.
Publication Account (2002)
HY62 2 HUNTON
HY65342754
The site of a probable broch on Stronsay situated on rising ground; only a slight rise in the field betrays its position [5]. In 1863, after a plough had exposed an underground chamber, a small excavation was carried out by Farrer and Petrie and the entrance passage of a broch revealed [2, fig. 425]. The trenches were filled in and there were no finds apart from a spindle whorl. A sketch of the entrance area survives [4, fig. 3.30]. Midden material is frequently exposed on the site [1].
Sources: 1. OS card HY 62 NE 6: 2. Petrie 1890, 92: 3. RCAHMS 1946, 2, 333-34, no. 980 and fig. 425: 4. Hedges et al. 1987, 124-26: 5. Lamb 1984, 24.
E W MacKie 2002
