Dail Langwell

49. Broch, Dail Langwell. On the W. side of Glencassley, about 7½ m. above the junction of the River Cassley with the River Oykel, on the slope of the hill some 80' above the river, are the ruins of a broch. The ground falls sharply away from its position on the N. and NE. sides and towards the river. It is much dilapidated on the S., on which side large sheepfolds have been erected from its material. The interior is very full of debris, the wall being nowhere visible for more than 5' above it. The highest portion of wall exposed is towards the NW., where on the exterior it is 11' high, and on the inside opposite rises some 5' to 6' higher. The thickness of the wall at its highest level is about 11'6”, and on the SSW., at about 5' from the ground, it is 14' 8”, but on this side the easier slope of the ground has made the position more assailable. The interior diameter is some 31'. The entrance has been from the E. through a passage about 18' 6” in length. Measuring from the exterior, the first 5' 6” are blocked with ruins, for the next 3' the side walls are exposed, and for the last 10' the passage is complete, roofed with flags throughout. At 8' 6” from the exterior, on the right side, is the entrance to the guard-chamber, only 1' 6” wide and now 1' 8” high. It is entered through a passage, gradually widening, 4' in length, beyond which the chamber curves round to the left, and is roofed with overlapping stones. The roof appears to be intact. At 4' inwards from the entrance to the guard­ chamber two door jambs project across the' passage, leaving a space between them of 1' 8”. They are slabs 4" thick, and do not act as supports -there beng no lintel above them. In the walls behind them, 2' 2" from the roof, are the holes for the bar, measuring about 6" x 7". That on the left goes 1' 2" into the wall, that on the right 2' 6", and appears to have passed into the guard-chamber beyond, as light is visible at the back of it. Outwards from the jambs the passage is 3' wide, and the walls diverge till at 5' 11" from the exterior, where last measurable, it is 4' 8" wide. Inwards from the jambs it is 5' wide, and now about 4' high.* On the S. side of the broch a portion of a gallery or chamber is exposed, still crossed by one huge stone 7' long, 2' broad, and 10" thick. The chamber has been 3' 6” wide. To the N. is an opening from it into the interior 3' across. A portion of the same gallery is visible on the W. About 7' S. of the entrance the opposing ends of an oval chamber are visible on the ground level about 10' in length, with an entrance from the interior 3' across. Some of the stones used in the structure are very large. One on the S., whose upper surface is 5' above the ground level, is 5' long, 3' across, and 1' thick.

OS 6-inch map, Sutherland, Sheet xciii.

RCAHMS 1911, visited (AOC) 16th June 1909.

* It is probable that there have been two portals in the passage, any existing trace, however, of that towards the exterior is obscured by the ruins.

NC41 1 DAIL LANGWELL

NC/4116 1121

This unexcavated broch in Creich, Sutherland, stands on the west side of Glencassley about 7.5 miles above the junction of the rivers Cassley and Oykel (visited 7/7/85). The huge mound of stone sits on a hillock on a slope about. 24m (80ft) above the river. There are no modern stone buildings anywhere near except for some large sheep enclosures built next to the broch on the south-east side.

The structure is full of debris and dilapidated but the wall stands 3.36m (11ft) high on the upstream or north-west side, where the inner face is some 2m higher than the outer. On this side there is a stretch of lintelled intra-mural gallery the roof of which is not far below the top of the adjacent internal wallface. Because of the height of the wall it must be an upper gallery, thus making Dail Langwell a true hollow-walled broch. The inner wallface is even higher on the opposite side. No trace of a scarcement can be seen on the inner face, and the evident height of the wall suggests that it is still buried under the debris in the interior.

The entrance was clearly visible on the east side in 1909 [2] but is hard to trace now; its outer end is presumably hidden by the sheep pens. It is evidently about 5.64m (18ft 6in) long and the inner end was intact; it was then still lintelled over for a distance of 3.0m (10ft). The doorway to a guard cell on the right of the passage was visible 2.59m (8ft 6in) from the exterior, and the roof of its corbelled chamber then also seemed to be intact; no trace of this cell was observed in 1985. A pair of door-checks were visible 1.22m (4ft) inwards from the doorway to this cell so there ought to be another door-frame further forward and hidden by debris. The space between the visible pair is 51cm (20in) and they are composed of 10cm (4in)-thick slabs set at right angles into the wall and projecting slightly from it. A bar-hole and -socket were seen behind the checks and the right hole seemed to lead into the guard cell.

All the other features described in 1909 are still visible. South of the entrance part of an oval mural cell can be seen – probably at about 7.30 o'clock – and the parts of the upper mural gallery about 1.07m (3ft 5in) wide on the north and north-west have already been mentioned. A raised void to the interior can be seen next to the north sector, at about 3 o'clock. On the south side is another stretch of roofed upper gallery with one huge lintel spanning it at about 9 o'clock; this measures 2.13m (7ft) long, 61cm (2ft) wide and 25cm (l0in) thick. There is another raised lintelled void to the interior here. Some of the stones in the wall are very large; one on the south is 1.52m (5ft) long by 91cm (3ft) wide by 30cm (1ft) thick: its upper edge is 1.52m (5ft) above the ground.

Dimensions (taken from [2]); the internal diameter is c. 9.46m (31ft), the wall is about 5.64m (18.5ft) thick at the entrance so the overall diameter is probably about 20.74m (68ft). The wall proportion might therefore be about 54.5%.

Sources: 1. NMRS site no. NC 41 SW 1: 2. RCAHMS 1911a, 19, no 49.

E W MacKie 2007

NC 4329 0228 and NC 3856 1595 A desk-based assessment and walkover survey were carried out, 15 December 2010–1 April 2011, in advance of a native woodland planting scheme. The scheme consists of five planting areas. Areas 1–3 centred on Dalnaclave (NC 3856 1595) and areas 4–5 centred on Carn Beag, Rosehall (NC 4329 0228). The survey covered a c815ha area and the land ranged in height from 16m above sea level at Rosehall to 260m N of Dubh Coille.

The desk-based assessment identified two scheduled ancient monuments, Croich Broch (NC 4116 1121) and Langwell Fort and Dun (NC 4104 0084), whilst the survey identified land use features, which predated the sheep and deer forest. A number of features were marked out and exclusion zones defined. The protection of features from the effect of regenerating vegetation will be in included in any management plan.

Archive: RCAHMS

Funder: CKD Galbraith

Highland Archaeology Services, 2011