Description

The monument is the remains of a broch tower and associated settlement dating probably to the Iron Age (between about 600 BC and AD 400). The broch is no longer visible on the ground surface except as a rise in the field, but a range of significant archaeological deposits and features are expected to be preserved below ground. The site was partially excavated by George Petrie in the 1870s, which produced an exceptionally rich and unusual assemblage of finds. The plans and sections (drawn by Petrie and Dryden) show that the broch has an overall diameter of around 18m, with walls some 4.5m thick enclosing an internal area 9m in diameter. The broch was surrounded by an extensive and complex settlement comprising numerous small buildings of varying shape and size. Petrie excavated an area S of the broch, but the broch village was not fully excavated and the basal courses of the broch itself and some deposits in its interior are also likely to survive. The broch is located on the N side of Scapa Bay, at the head of Scapa Flow, and is around 10m above sea level. The monument was first scheduled in 1938, but the documentation did not meet modern standards: the present amendment rectifies this.

The scheduled area is irregular on plan to include 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 and stone dyke to allow for their 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 and associated settlements. On the basis of the record of the 1870s excavations, and by analogy with more recent excavations of broch sites in Orkney, this monument is likely to retain its structural characteristics below ground to a marked degree and to preserve evidence of a complex development sequence. The Broch of Lingro and its associated settlement is second only to the Broch of Gurness in terms of scale and complexity and, although it is much less well-preserved than Gurness, there is considerable further potential for the presence of important deposits and features, artefacts and palaeoenvironmental evidence. The monument's importance is enhanced by its association with the wider landscape of Iron Age brochs around Scapa Flow and in Orkney generally. The loss of the monument would significantly diminish our future ability to appreciate and understand the dating, development, use and reuse of brochs and associated settlements, 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 HY40NW 1.

Petrie's and Dryden's plans and sections are preserved in Portfolio I A41 in the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland's library.

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, Society of Antiquaries of Scotland Monograph Series 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, 87.

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, 242-4.

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, 152-3, no 406.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland