Description

The monument is a broch mound dating probably to the Iron Age (between about 600 BC and AD 400). This substantial broch mound is flat-topped and circular in plan. It is approximately 19m in diameter and stands up to 1.8m high. The broch tower has been partly excavated in the past and part of the internal wall-face and an intramural cell are exposed in the top of the mound. An external ditch and bank are visible around the mound, but have been partly obscured by previous quarrying of the site. Between the broch tower and the surrounding ditch, quarrying has revealed upright slabs, indicating the possible presence of a broch village around the tower. The broch mound is located in an area of improved ground partly enclosed by a drystone wall, which is associated with an abandoned farmstead located just N of the broch mound. The broch is located on the summit of Vinquin Hill at about 100m above sea level. It has extensive views in all directions but especially to the N and E, over Eynhallow Sound and towards Rousay. The monument was first scheduled in 1936, but the documentation did not meet modern standards: the present amendment rectifies this.

The scheduled area is circular on plan, 70m 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. The monument offers considerable potential to study the relationship between the broch tower and its surrounding ditch, as well as any surrounding buildings and associated archaeological remains. By analogy with excavated brochs in Orkney, Vinquin broch is likely to retain its structural characteristics to a marked degree and to have a complex development sequence: it may overlie earlier remains and will probably include evidence for later re-use of the site. It is highly likely to contain occupation debris rich in artefacts, ecofacts and palaeoenvironmental evidence. The monument's importance is enhanced by its unusual hilltop location and its association with the wider landscape of Iron Age brochs and settlement in Orkney, including Mid Howe and the other brochs on the SW coast of Rousay. The loss of the monument would significantly diminish our future ability to appreciate and understand the development and use of brochs in Orkney.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Sources

Bibliography

RCAHMS record the site as HY32NW13.

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, 79, no 266.

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

Source: Historic Environment Scotland