Broch Of Infield

Broch of Infield. On a small promontory jutting out from the N shore of Firths Voe near Mossbank, Burra Ness, there is the remnant of a broch, beside which a small croft has been built and on which a small lighthouse (HU47SE 9) has been erected. The external diameter of the broch has been approximately 60 ft and the masonry of the drystone walling, which is now a mound of debris, has consisted of fairly large but irregularly-shaped stones. Only in the north portion is an arc of the outer face still visible. This extends for a distance of about 12 ft and is reduced to a height of two or three courses. A small cell is to be seen in the south section of what has apparently been the wall of the broch. The chamber itself is much

destroyed, the wall at the back of it totally so, but the entrance from the inner court, though choked by fallen material, is complete and is 2 ft 4 in high by 1 ft 8 in wide through a wall-thickness of 4 ft 6 in. At its inner end there is one step down to the floor-level of the chamber. A little further to the east, on the seaward face of the ruin, a quantity of midden deposit, or perhaps the floor accumulation of another cell was observed among fallen stones. Out of this were picked fragments of pottery which had formed part of a thick-walled, rounded vessel of some size, made of course paste, jet black in colour.

RCAHMS 1946, visited 29 June 1934.

HU47SE 1 4537 7472.

(HU 4538 7473 ) Brough of Infield (O.E.

OS 6" map, Shetland, 2nd ed., (1903).

Broch of Infield, generally as described by the RCAHM, but more mutilated by erosion and the construction of a breakwater to protect the light-house in the centre of the broch, so that its size can no longer be ascertained.

Visited by OS (NKB) 26th May 1968.

HU47 2 INFIELD HU/454747

A probable broch in Delting, standing on a low rocky promontory jutting into the Firth or Voe only a few feet above water level and at the foot of a long slope down to the sea from the hills behind. A small lighthouse (HU47SE 9) stands on the structure which is now nothing but a mound of debris; only on the north side is an arc of the outer face visible, to a height of two or three courses. A lintelled doorway on the south side, 51 cm (1 ft. 8 ins.) wide and 71 cm (2 ft. 4 ins.) high, leads from the interior out to a wrecked mural cell; the Commission noted that there was a step down into the chamber at its inner end. The outer diameter of the broch is about 18.30 m (60 ft.) (visited 4/6/63).

Sources: 1. OS card HU 47 SE 1: 2. RCAHMS 1946, vol. 3, no. 1116, 9-10.

E W MacKie 2002