Armadale Burn
Broch (Iron Age)(Possible)
Site Name Armadale Burn
Classification Broch (Iron Age)(Possible)
Canmore ID 6393
Site Number NC76SE 3
NGR NC 7994 6266
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/6393
- Council Highland
- Parish Farr
- Former Region Highland
- Former District Sutherland
- Former County Sutherland
NC76SW 3 7994 6266.
(NC 7994 6266) Broch (NR)
OS 6"map, (1963)
In a strong position, on the summit of a knoll which crowns the steep cliff on the west side of Armadale Burn, is a ruined broch. It measures 7.0m diameter within a wall varying from 4.3m to 4.7m thick, which is reduced mainly to base footings of the outer face, but survives to a maximum height of 1.3m internally. The entrance, 0.9m wide, is in the SE arc; no door checks or bar holes can be seen but corbelling of a guard chamber is exposed to the north of the entrance, and some 3.5m to the west are traces of the end wall of a mural chamber.
An outer defensive wall of uncertain width extends from the river cliff north of the broch around the west side, rejoining the cliff in the SE; the west part however is obscured by broch debris. The outer face is traceable intermittently to a maximum height of 0.5m. The entrance is on the north side, the easiest means of approach. See plan and photograph. Revised at 1/10,000.
RCAHMS 1911, visited 1909; Visited by OS (W D J) 26 April 1960 and (N K B) 28 June 1977.
Publication Account (2007)
NC76 1 ARMADALE BURN
NC/7994 6266 (7995 6265 – GPS)
This probable ground-galleried broch in Farr, Sutherland, is 1.5 miles from the sea and stands on top of a steep, high, conical knoll on the top of the west bank of the deep ravine down which flows the Armadale Burn (visited 9/7/63 and 22/7/03). The east slope of the knoll is continuous with that of the ravine but the western one slopes down more gradually to higher moorland. The shape of the circular drystone building is clearly visible although the wall is badly ruined, the outer face consisting only of the foundation course for most of the circuit. The inner face survives to a height of 1.3m and heavy rubble fills the interior.
The entrance is on the south-east, facing upstream, and is 4.27m (14ft) long and 91cm (3ft) wide with no sign of the door-frame. The passage has been partly cleared out since 1963 but there are no signs of a door-frame or of fallen lintels. The corbelling of a right-hand guard chamber is visible immediately north of this passage [1] and traces of the end wall of a mural cell are visible about 3.5m to its west. The lintel of what seems to be a doorway into the wall is visible on the north side. This doorway was photographed by the author in 1963 but is not mentioned in his notes, and neither is it mentioned in any other account. It could not be located in 2003. A report in 1960 [1] claims that the entrance is on the north side and is presumably referring to this door-way, which must be that of an intra-mural gallery or chamber.
In 2003 were seen, at c. 9-11 o'clock, clear traces of the inner wall of a mural gallery together with two huge, dislodged lintels. That this is a ground level rather than an upper gallery is implied by traces of the foundation of the outer wallface at 2 o'clock. Here are visible two huge, super-imposed and neatly laid blocks which must be close to bedrock and the relative heights of the two features suggest that the gallery lintels are only about 2m high.
Some excavation has been made into the rubble filling the interior and this now gives the impression that a huge wall projects radially into the interior at about 1 o'clock.
An outer wall of uncertain width surrounds the broch and ends at the cliff on both sides. The bottom of the burn ravine is very narrow at this point and the nearest modern cultivated land is a mile away downstream to the north; thus unless the adjacent moorland was cultivated Armadale Burn might be classed as one of those brochs inhabited by a community which concentrated more on sheep and cattle.
Dimensions (taken by the author in 1963): overall diameter through the entrance is 16.47m (54ft) and 16.17m (53ft) at right angles; the corresponding internal diameters are both 7.17m (23.5ft). The wall proportion is thus about 52.3%.
Sources: 1. NMRS site no. NC 76 SE 3: 2. RCAHMS 1911a, 63, no. 190: 3. MacKie 1975, 219.
E W MacKie 2007
