Hillhead Broch

ND35SE 14 372 521.

A stone bowl and two Late Bronze Age penannular gold arm- lets were found during ploughing in February 1913 in a small mound halfway between Inkerman farm (ND 3690 5254) and the Hillhead Broch (ND35SE 5, at ND 3762 5140). The mound was composed of black earth, grey surface stones, and some slaty stones 'fire burnt red form end to end and broken in the middle'. It had an extreme length of 78ft, a breadth at the SW end of 30ft, and gradually diminished towards the NE, and was about 2ft high. The bowl is 6ins in diameter and 4 1/2ins high externally. The armlets are elliptical and each formed from a single rod of gold, round in section. The extremities have a slight discoid termination. All are now in the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland (NMAS, Accession nos: AQ 84 and FF 69-70 respectively).

A O Curle 1913; Information from John Nicolson, Nybster

Gold armlets classified as Irish Late Bronze Age.

J M Coles 1962.

A mound, 16m by 9.6m and 0.8m high, lies near the E end of the runway at Wick Airport and comprises an area of rough land in an otherwise ploughed field. It lies in the vicinity of the mound in which the armlets were found, but may be composed of modern rubbish.

C E Batey 1981.

The area of the find was under crop when visited and therefore not investigated. The mound described by Miss Batey was not positively identified although the overgrown remains of a probable building at ND 3701 5204 is possibly what she describes.

Visited by OS (J B) 18 August 1982.