Description

The monument is a broch mound dating probably from the Iron Age (between 600 BC and AD 400). The mound is roughly circular in plan and comprises a platform measuring approximately 20m in diameter, which stands 0.7m high, with a mound atop the platform, 11m in diameter, which stands a further 1m high. The mound has been eroded by the sea and only about half of it survives. The mound is visible in cross-section in the eroding cliff face, including walling and upright slabs. Several hollows on the surface of the mound indicate that it has seen some investigation in the past. Traces of a defensive ditch and bank are visible around the mound. Between the broch and the ditch, the ground is very uneven and stony, indicating the presence of a broch village and/or later settlement around the tower. The mound is located in an area of pasture, with rig and furrow visible in the field surrounding the broch. The broch is located on the coast at about 5m above sea level. It has extensive views in all directions, but especially to the N and E over Eynhallow Sound. The monument was first scheduled in 1936, but the documentation did not meet modern standards: the present amendment 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 use and re-use is expected to survive, as shown in red on the accompanying map.

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 and related settlement. The monument offers considerable potential to study the relationship between the broch and its defensive outworks, and to examine any associated settlement. Despite the erosion, by analogy with excavated brochs in Orkney, the surviving part of this monument is likely to retain its structural characteristics to a marked degree and may demonstrate a complex development sequence: it may overlie earlier remains and will probably include evidence for contemporary extra-mural and later re-use of the site. The monument's importance is enhanced by its association with the wider landscape of Iron Age brochs and prehistoric settlement in Orkney, and by its location in an area of Orkney which is particularly rich in well-preserved brochs. The loss of the monument would significantly diminish our future ability to appreciate and understand the development and reuse of brochs in Orkney.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Sources

Bibliography

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

Armit, I 2005, 'Land-holding and inheritance in the Atlantic Scottish Iron Age'. 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, 129-143.

Ballin Smith, B (ed) 1994, Howe, Four Millennia of Orkney Prehistory, Edinburgh, Soc Antiq Scot Monogr 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: Parts I, II and III, Brit Archaeol Rep Brit Ser 163-165.

Lamb, R G, 1980, Iron Age Promontory Forts in the Northern Isles, Brit Archaeol Rep Brit Ser 79.

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.

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, 74, no 260.

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

Source: Historic Environment Scotland