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Riggin Of Kami
Broch (Iron Age)(Possible), Unidentified Pottery
Site Name Riggin Of Kami
Classification Broch (Iron Age)(Possible), Unidentified Pottery
Canmore ID 2934
Site Number HY50NE 20
NGR HY 5917 0743
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/2934
- Council Orkney Islands
- Parish St Andrews And Deerness
- Former Region Orkney Islands Area
- Former District Orkney
- Former County Orkney
HY50NE 20 5917 0743.
A stony mound, about 6ft high, at Riggin of Kami, is a probable broch. Walling 13ft 6ins thick shows on the N side and, many years ago, a ruined stair, no longer visible, was found in the mound. There is a considerable kitchen-midden on the W side, and there are outbuildings adjacent.
RCAHMS 1946, visited 4 June 1930
All that remains at this site are slight traces of dry-stone walling and a scatter of stones around the N side of a grass-covered mound. No trace of the midden could be found around the area of the broch.
Surveyed at 1:2500.
Visited by OS, 30 August 1964
The mound at Riggin of Kami extends across the promontory. There are depressions suggesting chambers in it, and odd lengths of walling visible through the grass. Behind it are several hut circles. This is not a broch, but a defensive structure similar to the Midhowe forework - related to Shetland 'blockhouse' forts.
Information from R G Lamb, 17 August 1970
A curving grass-covered bank spread to about 9.0m in width and 1.5m high covering a collapsed wall which appears to have been too extensive to have been part of a broch. The "depressions suggesting chambers" seen by Lamb appear to be where the wall has been dug into, and there is nothing else to suggest chambers. Insufficient can be seen to classify the site, but Lamb's suggestion of a blockhouse fort should not be disregarded. Lamb's "hut circles" immediately to the E are two small hollows, probably natural or a result of quarrying. No sign of the midden. Traces of indeterminate structures outside the wall to the S may be the "outbuildings" noted by RCAHMS.
Surveyed at 1:2500.
Visited by OS 21 May 1973
On the landward end of the triangular cliff-promontory extending towards Moustack (HY50NE 28), there is a site, long regarded as a possible broch; prior to excavation it took the form of a broad, curving mound, with traces of domestic structures on the promontory itself and a very extensive midden deposit in the adjacent field to landward. Excavation in 1981-82, cut short by the death of the director, Mr P S Gelling, revealed a regularly curving segment of ground-galleried broch-type wall, which was thought to be structure of 'semibroch' type rather than a fragment of circular structure.
RCAHMS 1946; R G Lamb 1980; K A Steedman 1980; RCAHMS 1987.
From the exposed floor area of the broch, 17 sherds of pottery were recovered; 12 sherds are from a slipped and roughly burnished vessel with an everted rounded rim.
B Smith 1988.
Orkney Smr Note (June 1986)
'Broch-probable' - a very stony mound, prob. remains of a
broch, but too much disturbed to show any distinctive features
except on the N side where a wall thickness of 13ft 6in can be
made out. On the landward, W side, a kitchen-midden deposits
extend over a considerable area. Local reports state that many
years ago a stair came to light in the mound, but now it is choked
up and invisible. Adjacent are traces of 'outbuildings'. [R1]
In the 1970s this site was very overgrown, and took the form
of a broad lumpy ridge extending in a curve across the promontory;
in this condition it was planned by Steedman. Small exposures of
walling included a face at the N end suggested that the structure
might be of 'forework' or 'blockhouse' type. In 1981-2 it was
excavated by the late P. S. Gelling but the work was left
incomplete at his death. The examination exposed a neatly-curving
segment of broch-type ground-galleried wall, which Gelling thought
might represent a 'semibroch' rather than a residual fragment of a
complete-circuit broch. There were traces of outbuildings outwith
the wall as well as domestic occupation within the defended area.
A few erect slabs on the knife-edge ridge extending towards
Moustack suggest further occupation here. Mr J. R. Foubister
confirms that the dark midden material extends a very considerable
way into the adjacent field, covering nearly a hectare of ground.
Information from Orkney SMR (RGL) June 1986. [R2] [R3] OR 1149.
Publication Account (2002)
HY50 6 RIGGAN OF KAMI
HY/593074
This probable ground-galleried broch with wheelhouse in St. Andrews and Deerness, consisted of a stony mound at the head of the geo (inlet) 400 m north of Sandside Farm; the site is on the landward end of a triangular cliff promontory [2]. Excavations began in 1981-82 but were cut short by the death of the director, Peter Gelling; the exposed parts of the building remain open and disintegrating (visited in 1987).
Visible is a long segment of curving wall which contains a ground level gallery (with a few lintels in position over it) and an entrance passage. There also is what looks like a raised void in the inner wall face and at least two radial piers in the interior suggest that a wheelhouse had been inserted into the building at some stage. The plan of the remains was made in 1984, not long after work ceased, and suggests that the site is a ground-galleried broch. The excavator apparently thought that its design, as well as its position on the edge of a low cliff, indicated that it was D-shaped semibroch of the type otherwise found only on the west coast and in the Western Isles (MacKie 1980: 2002). The site is particularly interesting for this reason, but also because it contains what is so far the only known example of a proper wheelhouse of Shetland type (with built radial piers) in Orkney. No information about any finds made is available to the writer.
Sources: 1. OS card HY50 NE 20: 2. Lamb 1987, 24.
E W MacKie 2002
Note (25 February 2015 - 18 May 2016)
A broch stands at the landward end of heavily eroded promontory that may once have connected to a precipitous stack that now lies a little over 10m offshore at its seaward end. Thought by Raymond Lamb to be a 'blockhouse' controlling access to the promontory (1980, 79), the character of the broch was proved by excavation in 1981-2 by the late Peter Gelling, though the work was left uncompleted and unpublished, and although there is no evidence of other defences across the neck, traces of settlement structures have been observed around the broch and extending along what is left of the crest of the promontory beyond it; in addition other structures can be seen on the stack, the summit of which measures about 65m from ENE to WSW by 20m transversely (0.11ha). Before the stack was detached, the promontory would have extended to about 0.28ha and would have been ideally suited for an earlier promontory fort, though for the present the case remains unproven.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 18 May 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC2847
