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Camster

Broch (Iron Age)(Possible)

Site Name Camster

Classification Broch (Iron Age)(Possible)

Canmore ID 8674

Site Number ND24NE 4

NGR ND 25208 45081

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/8674

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
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Administrative Areas

  • Council Highland
  • Parish Latheron
  • Former Region Highland
  • Former District Caithness
  • Former County Caithness

Archaeology Notes

ND24NE 4 2520 4518.

(ND 2520 4518) Broch (NR)

OS 1:10,000 map, (1975)

The remains of a broch, contained within a green, flat-topped mound, 4 to 5ft high and 35ft in diameter across the top.

The base of a wall, enclosing an area about 85ft in diameter, is visible round the base of the mound, with an entrance on the ENE indicated by the exposure of a few feet of inward curving wall.

The mound is surrounded by a 44ft wide ditch with a very shallow scarp - a depth of 5ft in 30ft. The much steeper scarp is 4ft in depth.

Placed at irregular intervals around the base of the mound, and in one instance on the sloping side of it, are four or five small cairn-like heaps of stones about 8ft in diameter.

RCAHMS 1911, visited 1910.

A turf-covered broch mound measuring about 28.0m in diameter and 2.5m maximum height. No structural details are evident. One or two stones and a slight ridge surrounding the mound suggests that there may have been an enclosure around the broch and one or two irregular hollows and upright stones in the side of the mound in the S suggests secondary buildings.

About 23.0m from the centre of the mound in the E and S arcs is an outer defence consisting of a curving ditch which cuts the broch off from rising ground. The outer scarp survives to a height of 1.2m but the inner scarp has been eroded or dug away and its original width cannot be ascertained. There is no trace of the ditch in the N and W which is drained marshland and it cannot be established if it ever continued in these arcs. The four or five small cairn-like heaps of stones are not evident.

Surveyed at 1:10,000.

Visited by OS (I S S) 6 April 1972.

No change to the above report.

Visited by OS (J M) 8 December 1982.

Activities

Publication Account (2007)

ND24 1 CAMSTER 1 ND/2520 4518

Possible broch on moorland in Latheron, Caithness, consisting of a green, flat-topped mound 1.2-1.5m (4-5ft) high and 10.7m (35ft) in diameter across the top. There are no traces of wallfaces in it, but some traces of what appears to be a surrounding wall forming a circle about 25.9m (85ft) in diameter can be seen at the base of the mound. There seems to be an entrance through this on the east-north-east. A ditch 13.4m (44ft) wide surrounds the mound beyond this wall; it cuts the site off from rising ground.

Sources: 1. NMRS site no. ND 24 NE 4: 2. RCAHMS. 1911b, 51, no. 189.

E W MacKie 2007

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