Description

The monument comprises the remains of a broch, a circular drystone structure dating from the Iron Age. The monument was originally scheduled in 1953, but the area covered by the designation did not relate accurately to the remains on the ground. The current rescheduling rectifies this.

The broch is situated in mixed woodland, about 300m to the WSW of Coldoch House. It is a rare example of a lowland Scottish broch, a fact which may be reflected in some unusual aspects of its architecture. The broch is almost 9m in diameter, within a massive drystone wall which varies between 5.2m and 5.8m in thickness and stands up to 1.5m in height. The entrance passageway lies on the ENE part of the circuit; the remains of a stairway can be seen immediately adjacent, to the ESE; and there are three intra-mural chambers with square angles, on the SSW, WNW and NNE parts of the circuit respectively. This precise arangement is not repeated in any other broch. In particular, the small size of the intramural cells and the tendency of their corners to be square, the thick external wall of relatively poor standard masonry, and the unusual position of the stair, all mark out this broch as distinctive.

The broch interior and intra-mural passages were cleared out in or around 1870, but the broch still preserves a considerable amount of archaeological information, both beneath and within its structure and around the exterior.

The area to be scheduled comprises the remains described and an area around them within which related material may be expected to survive. It is circular on plan and measures a maximum of 30m in diameter, as shown in red on the accompanying map extract.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Sources

Bibliography
No Bibliography entries for this designation

Source: Historic Environment Scotland