Field Visit
Date 9 September 1930
Event ID 1125741
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1125741
Broch, near Church at Feal. Just outside the SE corner of the church enclosure at Feal are the much dilapidated remains of a broch with its ‘out-buildings’ and defences. Many of the stones were carried away to build the church and manse, the 'out-buildings' in particular suffering very severely. It is still, however, possible to see that the broch itself has had an over-all diameter of approximately 65 ft. and a wall-thickness of 16 ft. 6 in. on the W., expanding slightly towards the entrance-passage on the E. The opening is now filled with debris, but its position can be traced by the heavy lintel-stone of the doorway. On the left are indications that a cell exists within the thickness of the wall, and, writing in 1774, Low (p.170) says that ‘the walls were hollowed out into apartments similar to those at Snaburgh in Unst’. He adds: ‘Close by this burgh are the foundations of a number of small houses, entirely in ruins, seemingly of the same age with the burgh itself. They are of an oblong shape, rounded off at the corners’.
RCAHMS 1946, visited 9 September 1930.
O.S.6"map, Shetland, 2nd ed., (1900).
