Description

The monument is a broch dating probably from the Iron Age (between about 600 BC and AD 400). It is visible as an oval turf-covered mound standing up to 2m high, sited on a sub-circular platform measuring 40m across. The broch mound is located on the coast edge and approximately one-third of it has been lost to the sea. Within the mound a section of the broch's inner wall is visible on the W side, surviving to a height of 1m. The internal diameter of the broch tower was approximately 9m. The remains of an outer ditch survive N and SW of the broch, measuring up to 12m wide and 1m deep in places, and there are traces of a bank to the N. The broch is located above a rocky beach, overlooking the S approaches to Eynhallow Sound, with views to Gairsay and Shapinsay and across Wide Firth. The monument was first scheduled in 1936, but the documentation did not meet modern standards: the present rescheduling rectifies this.

The scheduled area is irregular on plan and includes the remains described above and an area around them within which evidence relating to the monument's construction and use is expected to survive, as shown in red on the accompanying map. The scheduling specifically excludes the above-ground elements of a post-and-wire fence to allow for its maintenance.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Statement of Scheduling

This monument is of national importance because it has an inherent potential to make a significant addition to our understanding of the past, in particular of Iron Age society in Orkney and the function, use and development of brochs. Although part of the site has been lost to the sea, the remaining mound is substantial and appears relatively undisturbed. Within the mound, the broch is likely to retain its structural characteristics to a marked degree and there is considerable potential for the preservation of a development sequence, including, possibly, earlier and later use of the site. The monument's importance is enhanced by its coastal location and its proximity to several other brochs and related sites overlooking the S approaches to Eynhallow Sound. There is high potential to study the relationship between these coastal brochs and their place in the landscape. The loss of the monument would significantly diminish our future ability to appreciate and understand the development, use and reuse of brochs, and the nature of Iron Age society, economy and social hierarchy in Orkney and further afield.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Sources

Bibliography

RCAHMS record the site as HY41NW 6.

References

Armit, I 2003, Towers of the North: The Brochs of Scotland. Tempus.

Ballin Smith, B (ed) 1994, Howe, Four Millennia of Orkney Prehistory, Edinburgh, Soc Antiq Scot Monog Ser 9.

Ballin Smith, B 2005, 'Orcadian Brochs ' Complex Settlements with Complex Origins'. In Turner, V E, Dockrill, S J, Nicholson, R A and Bond, J M (eds) 2005, Tall Stories?: Two Millennia of Brochs, Shetland Amenity Trust: Lerwick, 66-77.

Hedges, J 1987, Bu, Gurness and the Brochs of Orkney: Part III: The Brochs of Orkney, Brit Archaeol Rep, Brit Ser 165, 81.

Mackie, E W 2002, The Roundhouses, Brochs and Wheelhouses of Atlantic Scotland c. 700 BC-AD 500: Architecture and Material Culture, Part 1: The Orkney and Shetland Isles. Brit Archaeol Rep Brit Ser 342, 244.

RCAHMS, 1946 The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. Twelfth report with an inventory of the ancient monuments of Orkney and Shetland, 3v Edinburgh, 266, 79, no. 265.

Ritchie, J N G 1988, The Brochs of Scotland. Aylesbury: Shire.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland