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South Ronaldsay, Harra Brough
Broch (Iron Age)(Possible), Building (Period Unassigned)
Site Name South Ronaldsay, Harra Brough
Classification Broch (Iron Age)(Possible), Building (Period Unassigned)
Canmore ID 9629
Site Number ND49SW 3
NGR ND 4157 9038
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/9629
- Council Orkney Islands
- Parish South Ronaldsay
- Former Region Orkney Islands Area
- Former District Orkney
- Former County Orkney
ND49SW 3 4157 9038
(ND 4157 9038) Harra Brough (NR) (Site of)
OS 6" map (1900)
Owing to the difficult and dangerous approach across a narrow rocky neck, this site could not be examined at close quarters. From a distance however, the higher levels of the headland showed the undoubted remains of a building of some sort, while a cavity 4 or 5ft square and at least 2ft deep has been cut out of the solid rock near where the headland joins the neck. The nature of this cavity is uncertain.
RCAHMS 1946, visited 1929.
'Harra Brough', a ruinous probably medieval building, surmounting a precipitous sided knoll on the rocky headland of Harrabrough Head. The sub-rectangular building measures about 21.0m NW-SE by 6.0m NE-SW within a turf-covered earthen wall 1.5m high and 3.5m wide where it is best preserved in the NE. There is no trace of stonework in the wall apart from a single slab on edge flanking the SE side of the entrance gap roughly central to the NE side. Within are two slight turf-covered ridges about 3.5m apart suggestive of internal divisions.
The difficult approach from the N down a cliff, has been further protected by a wall, now visible as a grassy scarp, some 15.0m outside the building. Towards its S end there is a gap at the head of an oblique path from the sea rocks below, suggesting that the building was meant to be approached by boat. The 'rock-cut' cavity noted by RCAHMS is a hole in this outer wall at its N end. According to A Annal (Little Mire, Widewall, S Ronaldsay) about 1900 a stone about 5ft high stood in the 'cavity' which was removed and thrown over the cliff by a James MacKenzie (now deceased) who found a cist and bones at its foot.
Surveyed at 1/2500.
Visited by OS (ISS) 3 May 1973.
Desk Based Assessment (August 1997)
The access to this site is dangerous and it was not visited during this survey. It has been previously recorded as a sub-rectangular building, 21m NW-SE by 6m. Two ridges inside the building are set 3.5m apart and appear to be internal divisions. The structure is built on the slope of a precipitous knoll and access from the landward side has been further protected by a wall. This wall is turf-covered, stands up to 1.5m high and is best preserved to the NE side. Towards the S end there is a gap at the head of an oblique path leading up from the sea rocks below, suggesting that the site was meant to be approached by boat. A hole in the N end of the wall is said to have contained a stone, 5' high. The stone was removed around 1900 and thrown over the cliff; the remains of a cist with bones was said to have been found in the cavity. The site was surveyed at 1:2500 by OS.
Moore and Wilson, 1997
Coastal Zone Assessment Survey
Publication Account (2002)
ND49 4 HARRA BROCH ('Harra Brough')
ND/415903
Unlikely possible broch in South Ronaldsay. The difficult and dangerous approach to this site -- on Harrabrough Head which is joined to the land by a narrow, rocky neck -- the remains here were not been examined closely by the Commission [2]. However later visit suggest that there are the remains of a sub-recangular building on the site [1].
Sources: 1. OS card ND 49 SW 3 (with small scale plan): 2. RCAHMS 1946, 2, no. 852.
E W MacKie 2002
Note (13 February 2015 - 31 May 2016)
The precipitous knoll at the seaward end of Harrabrough Head, which is an inaccessible promontory jutting out from the foot of the coastal cliffs, is crowned by a substantial rectangular structure, and the approach from the NE across a narrow neck is also barred by a ruinous wall. The structure on the summit is probably a medieval building, measuring 21m from NW to SE by 6m transversely within a wall reduced to a bank 3.5m in thickness by 1.5m in height. The outer wall across the neck has been reduced to a stony scarp, but is broken by a gap at its S end, where a path approaches obliquely up the slope from the rocks on the shore below. The area cut off is riven with geos leading into sea arches and extends to no more than 0.7ha. The relationship between the building and the outer wall is unknown.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 31 May 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC2817
