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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

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Administrative Areas

  • Council Orkney Islands
  • Parish Stronsay
  • Former Region Orkney Islands Area
  • Former District Orkney
  • Former County Orkney

Archaeology Notes

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.

Activities

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

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