Scousburgh
Broch (Iron Age)(Possible), Cist (Period Unknown)(Possible), Spindle Whorl(S) (Period Unknown), Unidentified Pottery (Period Unknown)
Site Name Scousburgh
Classification Broch (Iron Age)(Possible), Cist (Period Unknown)(Possible), Spindle Whorl(S) (Period Unknown), Unidentified Pottery (Period Unknown)
Alternative Name(s) Scousbrough
Canmore ID 542
Site Number HU31NE 9
NGR HU 37726 17820
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/542
- Council Shetland Islands
- Parish Dunrossness
- Former Region Shetland Islands Area
- Former District Shetland
- Former County Shetland
HU31NE 9 3772 1784.
(HU 3772 1781) Brough (NR) (Site of)
OS 6" map, Shetland, 2nd ed., (1903).
No remains of a broch are visible but the name 'Scousburgh' is significant.
RCAHMS 1946, visited 1930.
Building operations about 1956, although not revealing any stonework, exposed a cist or hearth with whorls, steatite fragments etc., in the outer area, and also a biconical rubbing stone similar to those found in a Caithness wag and in Iron Age levels at Bunyie Hoose (HU56NE 5).
J Stewart 1956.
There is no evidence of a broch to be seen here. The position, a high rocky knoll, is un-broch-like, and the area of the top of the knoll is now hardly big enough to have sustained a broch. The artifacts, in Lerwick Museum, were found at HU 3772 1784.
Surveyed at 1/2500.
Visited by OS (RL) 10 May 1968.
Field Visit (16 July 1930)
Broch, Scousburgh. Close behind the post office at Scousburgh is a high conical knoll, which is marked on the O.S. map as the site of a broch (1). No remains are now visible, but the place-name undoubtedly suggests that there has been a broch in the immediate neighbourhood.
(1) Cf. also Arch. Scot., v, p. 183.
RCAHMS 1946, visited 16 July 1930.
OS 6" map, Shetland, 2nd ed., (1903).
Publication Account (2002)
HU31 5 SCOUSEBURGH ('Rhu-Allen')
HU/37721781
Possible broch in Dunrossness, in a high conical knoll; the place name suggests a broch [2] but a report in 1968 is sceptical [1]. In 1956 a cist or hearth was exposed nearby with artefacts such as whorls, steatite fragments, etc.; no broch-like masonry was observed. [1].
Sources: OS card HU 31 NE 9: 2. RCAHMS 1946, vol. 3, no. 1190, 45: 3. J. Stewart in Discovery and Excavation, Scotland, 1956, 27.
E W MacKie 2002
