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A broch is an
Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly ...
drystone Dry stone, sometimes called drystack or, in Scotland, drystane, is a building method by which structures are constructed from stones without any mortar to bind them together. Dry stone structures are stable because of their construction me ...
hollow-walled structure found in
Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...
. Brochs belong to the classification "complex Atlantic roundhouse" devised by Scottish
archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landsca ...
s in the 1980s. Their origin is a matter of some controversy.


Origin and definition

The word ''broch'' is derived from Lowland Scots 'brough', meaning (among other things) fort. In the mid-19th century Scottish antiquaries called brochs 'burgs', after
Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlement ...
', with the same meaning. Place names in Scandinavian Scotland such as Burgawater and Burgan show that Old Norse ' is the older word used for these structures in the north. Brochs are often referred to as '' duns'' in the west. Antiquarians began to use the spelling ''broch'' in the 1870s. A precise definition for the word has proved elusive. Brochs are the most spectacular of a complex class of roundhouse buildings found throughout Atlantic Scotland. The
Shetland Amenity Trust The Shetland Amenity Trust is a charitable trust based in Shetland, Scotland. It was formed in 1983. Among the Trust's aims are to preserve and protect the architectural heritage of Shetland and it owns and operates many historical buildings. I ...
lists about 120 sites in Shetland as candidate brochs, while the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS) identifies a total of 571 candidate broch sites throughout the country. Researcher Euan MacKie, using a restricted definition, has proposed a much smaller total for Scotland of 104. The origin of brochs is a subject of continuing research. Eighty years ago most archaeologists believed that brochs, usually regarded as the 'castles' of Iron Age chieftains, were built by immigrants who had been pushed northward after being displaced first by the intrusions of Belgic tribes into what is now southeast England at the end of the second century BC and later by the
Roman invasion The Roman conquest of Britain refers to the conquest of the island of Britain by occupying Roman forces. It began in earnest in AD 43 under Emperor Claudius, and was largely completed in the southern half of Britain by 87 when the Staneg ...
of southern Britain beginning in AD 43. Yet there is now little doubt that the hollow-walled broch tower was an invention in what is now Scotland; even the kinds of pottery found inside them that most resembled south British styles were local hybrid forms. The first of the modern review articles on the subject (MacKie 1965) did not, as is commonly believed, propose that brochs were built by immigrants, but rather that a hybrid culture formed from the blending of a small number of immigrants with the native population of the Hebrides produced them in the first century BC, basing them on earlier, simpler, promontory forts. This view contrasted, for example, with that of Sir W. Lindsay Scott, who argued, following V. Gordon Childe (1935), for a wholesale migration into Atlantic Scotland of people from southwest England. MacKie's theory has fallen from favour too, mainly because starting in the 1970s there was a general move in archaeology away from 'diffusionist' explanations towards those pointing to exclusively indigenous development. Meanwhile, the increasing number – albeit still pitifully few – of radiocarbon dates for the primary use of brochs (as opposed to their later, secondary use) still suggests that most of the towers were built in the 1st centuries BC and AD. A few may be earlier, notably the one proposed for Old Scatness Broch in Shetland, where a sheep bone dating to between 390 and 200 BC has been reported. The other broch claimed to be substantially older than the 1st century BC is
Crosskirk Crosskirk is a small remote hamlet, overlooking Crosskirk Bay, in Caithness, Scottish Highlands and is in the Scottish council area of Highland. The hamlet of Crosskirk is situated less than 1 mile north east of Forss and 3 miles west of Thur ...
in Caithness, but a recent review of the evidence suggests that it cannot plausibly be assigned a date earlier than the 1st centuries BC/AD.


Distribution

The distribution of brochs is centred on northern Scotland. Caithness, Sutherland and the Northern Isles have the densest concentrations, but there are many examples in the west of Scotland and the
Hebrides The Hebrides (; gd, Innse Gall, ; non, Suðreyjar, "southern isles") are an archipelago off the west coast of the Scottish mainland. The islands fall into two main groups, based on their proximity to the mainland: the Inner and Outer Hebri ...
. Although mainly concentrated in the northern Highlands and the Islands, a few examples occur in the Borders (for example Edin's Hall Broch and Bow Castle Broch), on the west coast of Dumfries and Galloway, and near Stirling. In a sketch there appears to be a broch by the river next to
Annan Castle Annan Castle, was a castle that was located on the banks of the River Annan, in Annan, Scotland. A motte and bailey castle was built in the early 12th century by the de Brus family, Lords of Annandale. A flood in the mid-12th century changed the ...
in Dumfries and Galloway. This small group of southern brochs has never been satisfactorily explained.


Purposes

The original interpretation of brochs, favoured by nineteenth century antiquarians, was that they were defensive structures, places of refuge for the community and their livestock. They were sometimes regarded as the work of Danes or
Picts The Picts were a group of peoples who lived in what is now northern and eastern Scotland (north of the Firth of Forth) during Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. Where they lived and what their culture was like can be inferred from ea ...
. From the 1930s to the 1960s, archaeologists such as V. Gordon Childe and later John Hamilton regarded them as castles where local landowners held sway over a subject population. The castle theory fell from favour among Scottish archaeologists in the 1980s, due to a lack of supporting archaeological evidence. These archaeologists suggested defensibility was never a major concern in the siting of a broch, and argued that they may have been the " stately homes" of their time, objects of prestige and very visible demonstrations of superiority for important families (Armit 2003). Once again, however, there is a lack of archaeological proof for this reconstruction, and the sheer number of brochs, sometimes in places with a lack of good land, makes it problematic. Brochs' close groupings and profusion in many areas may indeed suggest that they had a primarily defensive or even offensive function. Some of them were sited beside precipitous cliffs and were protected by large ramparts, artificial or natural: a good example is at Burland near Gulberwick in Shetland, on a clifftop and cut off from the mainland by huge ditches. Often they are at key strategic points. In Shetland they sometimes cluster on each side of narrow stretches of water: the Broch of Mousa, for instance, is directly opposite another at Burraland in Sandwick. In Orkney there are more than a dozen on the facing shores of Eynhallow Sound, and many at the exits and entrances of the great harbour of Scapa Flow. In Sutherland quite a few are placed along the sides and at the mouths of deep valleys. Writing in 1956 John Stewart suggested that brochs in Shetland were forts put up by a military society to scan and protect the countryside and seas. Finally, some archaeologists consider broch sites individually, doubting that there ever was a single common purpose for which every broch was constructed. There are differences in the positions, dimensions and likely status of broch in the various areas in which brochs are found. For example, the broch "villages" which occur at a few places in Orkney have no parallel in the Western Isles.


Structures

Generally, brochs have a single entrance with bar-holes, door-checks and lintels. There are mural cells and there is a scarcement (ledge), perhaps for timber-framed lean-to dwellings lining the inner face of the wall. Also there is a spiral staircase winding upwards between the inner and outer wall and connecting the galleries. Brochs vary from 5 to 15 metres (16–50 ft) in internal diameter, with 3 metre (10 ft) thick walls. On average, the walls only survive to a few metres in height. There are five extant examples of towers with significantly higher walls: Dun Carloway on Lewis,
Dun Telve Dun Telve ( gd, Dùn Teilbh) is an iron-age broch located about southeast of the village of Glenelg, Inverness-shire in the Highland Region of Scotland. It is one of the best preserved brochs in Scotland. Location Dun Telve () stands on the n ...
and
Dun Troddan Dun Troddan ( gd, Dùn Trodan) is an iron-age broch located about southeast of the village of Glenelg, Highland, in Scotland. It is one of the best-preserved brochs in Scotland. Location Dun Troddan () stands on a level rock platform north of ...
in Glenelg, Mousa in Shetland and
Dun Dornaigil Dun Dornaigil is an Iron Age broch in Sutherland in the Scottish Highlands (). It is in Strathmore on the eastern bank of the Strathmore River. It is under the care of Historic Environment Scotland. The interior has been filled and is now ina ...
in Sutherland, all of whose walls exceed 6.5 m (21 ft) in height. Mousa's walls are the best preserved and are still 13 m tall; it is not clear how many brochs originally stood so high. A frequent characteristic is that the walls are galleried: with an open space between, the outer and inner wall skins are separate but tied together with linking stone slabs; these linking slabs may in some cases have served as steps to higher floors. It is normal for there to be a cell breaking off from the passage beside the door; this is known as the guard cell. It has been found in some Shetland brochs that guard cells in entrance passageways are close to large door-check stones. Although there was much argument in the past, it is now generally accepted among some archaeologists that brochs were roofed, perhaps with a conical timber framed roof covered with a locally sourced thatch. The evidence for this assertion is still very scanty, although excavations at Dun Bharabhat, Lewis, may support it. The main difficulty with the interpretation continues to be identifying potential sources of structural timber, though bog and driftwood may have been sources. Very few of the brochs on the islands of Orkney and Shetland have cells on the ground floor. Most brochs have scarcements (ledges) which may have allowed the construction of a wooden first floor (spotted by the antiquary George Low in Shetland in 1774), and excavations at Loch na Berie on the Isle of Lewis may show signs of a further, second floor (e.g. stairs on the first floor, which head upwards). Some brochs such as Dun Dornaigil and
Culswick The Broch of Culswick (also Culswick Broch) is an unexcavated coastal broch in the Shetland Islands of Scotland (). It has good views all around, including Foula and Vaila isles, and Fitful Head and Fair Isle in the south. The broch stands on ...
in Shetland have unusual triangular lintels above the entrance door. As in the case of
Old Scatness Old Scatness is an archeological site on the Ness of Burgi, near the village of Scatness, parish of Dunrossness in the south end of Mainland, Shetland, near Sumburgh Airport and consists of medieval, Viking, Pictish, and Iron Age remains. It ha ...
in Shetland (near
Jarlshof Jarlshof ( ) is the best-known prehistoric archaeological site in Shetland, Scotland. It lies in Sumburgh, Mainland, Shetland and has been described as "one of the most remarkable archaeological sites ever excavated in the British Isles". It co ...
) and Burroughston on
Shapinsay Shapinsay (, sco, Shapinsee) is one of the Orkney Islands off the north coast of mainland Scotland. There is one village on the island, Balfour, from which roll-on/roll-off car ferries sail to Kirkwall on the Orkney Mainland. Balfour Castle ...
, brochs were sometimes located close to
arable land Arable land (from the la, arabilis, "able to be ploughed") is any land capable of being ploughed and used to grow crops.''Oxford English Dictionary'', "arable, ''adj''. and ''n.''" Oxford University Press (Oxford), 2013. Alternatively, for th ...
and a source of water (some have wells or natural springs rising within their central space). Sometimes, on the other hand, they were sited in wilderness areas (e.g.
Levenwick Levenwick is a small village about south of Lerwick, on the east side of the South Mainland of Shetland, Scotland. It is part of the parish of Dunrossness and the Levenwick Health Centre provides medical support for the Dunrossness area.It conta ...
and
Culswick The Broch of Culswick (also Culswick Broch) is an unexcavated coastal broch in the Shetland Islands of Scotland (). It has good views all around, including Foula and Vaila isles, and Fitful Head and Fair Isle in the south. The broch stands on ...
in Shetland, Castle Cole in Sutherland). Brochs are often built beside the sea ( Carn Liath, Sutherland); sometimes they are on islands in
lochs ''Loch'' () is the Scottish Gaelic, Scots and Irish word for a lake or sea inlet. It is cognate with the Manx lough, Cornish logh, and one of the Welsh words for lake, llwch. In English English and Hiberno-English, the anglicised spellin ...
(e.g.
Clickimin The Broch of Clickimin (also Clickimin or Clickhimin Broch) is a large, well-preserved but restored broch in Lerwick in Shetland, Scotland (). Originally built on an island in Clickimin Loch, it was approached by a stone causeway. The broch is ...
in Shetland). About 20 Orcadian broch sites include small settlements of stone buildings surrounding the main tower. Examples include Howe, near
Stromness Stromness (, non, Straumnes; nrn, Stromnes) is the second-most populous town in Orkney, Scotland. It is in the southwestern part of Mainland Orkney. It is a burgh with a parish around the outside with the town of Stromness as its capital. E ...
, Gurness Broch in the north west of
Mainland, Orkney The Mainland, also known as Hrossey and Pomona, is the main island of Orkney, Scotland. Both of Orkney's burghs, Kirkwall and Stromness, lie on the island, which is also the heart of Orkney's ferry and air connections. Seventy-five per cent of ...
, Midhowe on Rousay and Lingro near Kirkwall (destroyed by a farmer in the 1980s). There are "broch village" sites in Caithness, but elsewhere they are unknown. Most brochs are unexcavated. The end of the broch building period seems to have come around AD 100–200. Those that have been properly examined show that they continued to be in use for many centuries, with the interiors often modified and changed, and that they underwent many phases of habitation and abandonment.


Heritage status

The Crucible of Iron Age Shetland's Mousa, Old Scatness and Jarlshof sites are on the United Kingdom "Tentative List" of possible nominations for the
UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international coope ...
World Heritage Programme list of sites of outstanding cultural or
natural Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. Although humans ar ...
importance to the common
heritage Heritage may refer to: History and society * A heritage asset is a preexisting thing of value today ** Cultural heritage is created by humans ** Natural heritage is not * Heritage language Biology * Heredity, biological inheritance of physical c ...
of
humankind Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, culture, ...
. This list, published in July 2010, includes sites that may be nominated for inscription over the next 5–10 years.


New broch planned

The
Caithness Broch Project The Caithness Broch Project is a Scottish charity which aims to promote the county of Caithness as a heritage tourism destination. Established as a company in October 2013 and granted charitable status in January 2016, the organisation highlights ...
was set up in 2013 as a project in experimental archaeology to build a broch using traditional techniques such as drystone walling. Purposes of the project include possible insights into the purpose of brochs, preservation of local skills in techniques such as drystone wall building, and to attract tourists. a site had not been acquired, and the funding required, estimated at £1m–£3m, had not yet been arranged.


See also

* Oldest buildings in Scotland * Irish round tower *
Fortified tower A fortified tower (also defensive tower or castle tower or, in context, just tower) is one of the defensive structures used in fortifications, such as castles, along with curtain walls. Castle towers can have a variety of different shapes and fu ...
*
Nuraghe The nuraghe (, ; plural: Logudorese Sardinian , Campidanese Sardinian , Italian ), or also nurhag in English, is the main type of ancient megalithic edifice found in Sardinia, developed during the Nuragic Age between 1900 and 730 B. ...
* Ringfort


References and footnotes

;General references * Armit, I. (1991) The Atlantic Scottish Iron Age: five levels of chronology, ''Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot.'' v. 121, pp. 181–214; * Armit, I. (1996) ''The Archaeology of Skye and the Western Isles'', Edinburgh University Press; * Armit, I. (2003) ''Towers in the North: The Brochs of Scotland'', Stroud : Tempus; * Ballin Smith, B. and Banks, I. (eds) (2002) ''In the Shadow of the Brochs, the Iron Age in Scotland'', Stroud: Tempus; * Fojut, N. (1982) Towards a Geography of Shetland Brochs, ''Glasgow Archaeological Journal'', v. 9, pp. 38–59; * Harding, D.W. (2000) ''The Hebridean Iron Age: Twenty Years’ Research'', University of Edinburgh Department of Archaeology, Occasional Paper No. 20; * Harding, D.W. (2004) ''The Iron Age in Northern Britain'', London : Routledge; ;Specific references and notes


Further reading

*Armit, Ian (2002), ''Towers in the North: The Brochs of Scotland''. The History Press. * MacKie, E W 1992 The Iron Age semibrochs of Atlantic Scotland: a case study in the problems of deductive reasoning. Archaeol Journ 149 (1991), 149–81. * MacKie, E W 1995a Gurness and Midhowe brochs in Orkney: some problems of misinterpretation. Archaeol Journ 151 (1994), 98–157. * MacKie, E W 1995b The early Celts in Scotland. Miranda Green (ed) The Celtic World. Routledge, London: 654–70. * MacKie, E W 1997 Dun Mor Vaul re-visited, J.N.G. Ritchie (ed) The Archaeology of Argyll. Edinburgh: 141–80. * MacKie, E W 1998 Continuity over three thousand years of northern prehistory: the ‘tel’ at Howe, Orkney. Antiq Journ 78, 1–42. * MacKie, E W 2000 The Scottish Atlantic Iron Age: indigenous and isolated or part of a wider European world? 99–116 in Jon C Henderson (ed) The Prehistory and Early History of Atlantic Europe. BAR International Series 861: Oxford. * MacKie, E W 2002a Excavations at Dun Ardtreck, Skye, in 1964 and 1965. Proc Soc Antiq Scot 131 (2000), 301–411. * MacKie, E W 2002b The Roundhouses, Brochs and Wheelhouses of Atlantic Scotland c. 700 BC – AD 500: architecture and material culture. Part 1 The Orkney and Shetland Isles. British Archaeological Reports British Series 342. Oxford. * MacKie, E. W. 2005 119. Scottish brochs at the start of the new millennium, 11–31 in Turner, Val E, Nicholson, Rebecca A, Dockrill, S J & Bond, Julie M (eds.) Tall stories? Two millennia of brochs. Lerwick. *Ritchie, J N G (1998), ''Brochs of Scotland''. Shire Publications. * Hunter, Mollie, '' The Stronghold'', an historical novel about the building of the first broch.


External links


"Towers of stone–the brochs of Scotland"
from The Scotsman, 27 February 2006.
Pretanic World – Chart of Neolithic, Bronze Age and Celtic Stone Structures

Glenelg BrochsNew image of Iron Age broch reconstruction plan
from BBC, 25 January 2022. {{Authority control