East Shebster
Broch (Iron Age)(Possible), Ditch (Period Unassigned), Mound (Period Unassigned)
Site Name East Shebster
Classification Broch (Iron Age)(Possible), Ditch (Period Unassigned), Mound (Period Unassigned)
Canmore ID 7936
Site Number ND06SW 10
NGR ND 0250 6339
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/7936
- Council Highland
- Parish Reay
- Former Region Highland
- Former District Caithness
- Former County Caithness
ND06SW 10 0250 6339.
(ND 0250 6339) Cairn (NR)
OS 6" map, Caithness, 2nd ed., (1907)
This Pictish house was almost levelled many years ago. The remains of one small chamber are still visible.
Name Book 1873.
This oval, grass-covered mound, some 86ft by 78ft across and 4 1/2ft high, is possibly a large, much-robbed cairn.
RCAHMS 1911.
The much-mutilated, grass-covered remains of a cairn, measuring 22.0m in diameter by 2.0m in height, contain the remains of a possible chamber in the SE segment.
Resurveyed at 1:2500.
Visited by OS (R D) 3 November 1964.
On a barely perceptible rise in marshy ground, is a mound about 25.0m in diameter and 2.0m high, which is overgrown with grass and severely reduced by quarrying. The 'chamber' noted in the Name Book and by the previous field investigator may be the result of quarrying. Around the N half of the mound is a well-defined but silted ditch about 4.0m wide; this ditch may have carried around the E and W sides, but this is unclear. The existence of this ditch and the overall size of the mound may indicate a broch or a homestead, but no walling is exposed and at no point can the content of the mound be seen.
Revised at 1:2500.
Visited by OS (N K B) 24 November 1981.
Publication Account (2007)
ND06 2 EAST SHEBSTER ND/0250 6339
A possible broch in Thurso, Caith-ness, consisting of a much-quarried oval, grass-covered mound – some 25m in diameter and 2m high – with traces of a silted-up surrounding ditch on the north. In 1873 it was stated that "This Pictish house was almost levelled many years ago. The remains of one small chamber are still visible." [1]. The “chamber” was thought unconvincing in 1981 [1].
Sources: 1. NMRS site no. ND 06 SW 10: 2. RCAHMS 1911a, 105, no. 385.
E W MacKie 2007