Description

The monument is a broch mound dating probably from the Iron Age (between about 600 BC and AD 400). It is visible as an irregular-shaped stony mound measuring approximately 20m E-W by 8m N-S and standing up to 1.5m high. The mound is highly likely to contain the foundations of a broch tower and associated features and buried deposits. There are also traces of a possible ditch and bank to the NW and NE. The broch mound is located in a slight hollow on improved ground E of the Loch of Isbister, at about 20m above sea level. It has extensive views in all directions, but especially out over the Loch of Isbister. The monument was first scheduled in 1937, but the documentation did not meet modern standards: the present amendment rectifies this.

The scheduled area is circular on plan, 50m in diameter, to include the remains described above and an area around them within which evidence relating to the monument's construction, use and abandonment 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. By analogy with excavated brochs elsewhere in Orkney, this monument is likely to retain its structural characteristics and may have a complex development sequence: it may overlie earlier remains and may also include evidence for later re-use of the site. The monument's importance is enhanced because there are rather few broch sites in this general vicinity compared to elsewhere in Orkney and because of its association with the wider landscape of Iron Age settlement in Orkney. The loss of the monument would significantly diminish our future ability to appreciate and understand the development and use of brochs in Orkney and their placing in the landscape.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Sources

Bibliography

RCAHMS record the site as HY22SE 39.

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 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, 16, no 16.

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

Source: Historic Environment Scotland