Skail
Broch (Iron Age)(Possible)
Site Name Skail
Classification Broch (Iron Age)(Possible)
Alternative Name(s) Eilean Garbh
Canmore ID 6110
Site Number NC74NW 3
NGR NC 7201 4732
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/6110
- Council Highland
- Parish Farr
- Former Region Highland
- Former District Sutherland
- Former County Sutherland
NC74NW 3.00 7201 4732
NC74NW 3.01 NC 7204 4733 Enclosure
(NC 7201 4732) Broch (NR)
OS 6" map, (1962)
The remains of a broch with outworks, discovered on the edge of a rocky escarpment during fieldwork. The broch consists of the footings of a wall about 4.2m broad and now of negligible height, enclosing an area some 8.3m in diameter, and having an entrance in the SE. The defences consist of a double rampart and ditch springing from the rock edge behind the broch on the west and running through north, east and south, with a break opposite the entrance on the SE. A secondary enclosure 21m by 6m of boulder construction has been built within the inner ditch on the NE. This ditch is 8.5m wide and 3m deep and the outer ditch is 6m wide and 1.2m deep.
Visited by OS (J L D) 6 May 1960; Visible on RAF air photograph 106G/Scot/UK/76: 4025-6.
The fragmentary remains of a broch with outworks are as described by the previous field investigator. It measures 15.2m to 15.7m overall diameter; the base blocks of the outer face are visible intermittently through the tumble, but the inner face cannot be identified with certainty. At the easiest means of approach from the south, the outworks comprise a double rampart with outer ditches, but this fades in the steepening west and east slopes to two outward-facing scarps. The discontinuous footings of an outer retaining wall occur in the face of the inner rampart at both sides of the entrance, and an arc of crude walling, about 4.2m long, against the inner face of the same rampart immediately west of the entrance may be the remains of a domestic structure. The later stone-walled enclosure built into the ditch partially overlays the entrance causeway through the outworks at its south end.
Revised at 1:10,000.
Visited by OS (N K B) 18 December 1978.
Publication Account (2007)
NC74 1 EILEAN GARBH (‘Skail’)
NC/7201 4732
This probable broch with outworks in Farr, Sutherland, was discovered in 1960 by the investigators of the one-time Archaeology Division of the Ordnance Survey. The name used here was suggested by Swanson [2]. The remains consist of the footings of a wall about 4.2m thick, now of negligible height, enclosing an area some 8.3min diameter and with an entrance in the south-east. The inner face cannot be identified with certainty but the overall diameter of the building may be about 15.7m [2].
The outer defences consist of a double rampart and ditch springing from the rock edge behind the broch on the west and running through north, east and south with a break opposite the entrance on the south-east. The inner ditch is 8.5m wide and 3m deep, and the outer one is 6m wide and 1.2m deep. Swanson gives more details of these outworks and provides an excellent plan [2].
Sources: 1. NMRS site no. NC 74 NW 3: 2. Swanson (ms) 1985, 734-36 and plan.
E W MacKie 2007
Note (9 February 2015 - 31 May 2016)
The remains of a broch lie within a strong outer defence backing onto a rocky escarpment on the E flank of Strathnaver NE of Skail. The broch has been reduced to a low mound of rubble measuring up to 15.7m in diameter over the intermittent line of the outer face, while the outer defences comprise two ramparts with external ditches at the entrance on the SE, though elsewhere on the SW and NE it is only the lines of the ramparts that are visible, largely reduced to scarps on the slope. The inner ditch is up to 8m broad by 3m deep, and the outer 6m by 1.2m respectively; traces of the face of the inner rampart are also visible to either side of the entrance. The area enclosed by these outer works measures about 33m from NW to SE by 30m transversely (0.07ha). The relationship between the broch and the outer defences is not known.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 31 May 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC2803
