Burroughston Broch is an

Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...

broch In archaeology, a broch is an British Iron Age, Iron Age drystone hollow-walled structure found in Scotland. Brochs belong to the classification "complex Atlantic roundhouse" devised by Scottish archaeologists in the 1980s. Brochs are round ...

located on the island of

Shapinsay Shapinsay (, ) is one of the Orkney Islands off the north coast of mainland Scotland. With an area of , it is the eighth largest island in the Orkney archipelago. It is low-lying and, with a bedrock formed from Old Red Sandstone overlain by bo ...

in the

Orkney Islands Orkney (), also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago off the north coast of mainland Scotland. The plural name the Orkneys is also sometimes used, but locals now consider it outdated. Part of the Northern Isles along with Shetland ...

, in Scotland (). The site overlooks the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. A sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Se ...

on the northeast part of Shapinsay. Excavated in the mid 19th century, Burroughston Broch is still well-preserved. The

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. A certain amount of binding is obtained through the use of carefully ...

walls are up to four metres thick in some parts and there is a complete chamber intact off the entrance passage. Some remains of stone fittings are evident in the interior.

Location

Burroughston Broch overlooks the

at the northeast corner of

island, about 4 miles from the ferry pier. Slightly to the south lies

Linton Bay The Bay of Linton is a bay on the east coast on the island of Shapinsay in the Orkney Islands, Scotland. To the north of Linton Bay are the headlands of Ness of Ork, and to the south is The Foot. The ancient monument the Broch of Burroughston is ...

. The broch stands at the foot of a gently sloping field just above the low rocky shoreline. It is one of the best preserved brochs in Orkney.

Description

The walls of Burroughston Broch have an external diameter of around 18 metres, and an internal diameter of around 10 metres. From the outside, the building appears as a grassy mound, and little of the outer wall is exposed. The entrance passage is on the east side, and is about 4 metres long, 1.2 metres wide and 1.8 metres high. There is an elongated guard room opening from the left side of the passage. Inside the broch, the outer face of the upper gallery is still visible, and traces of an opening to the upper gallery are still apparent. A deep well is present in the broch floor: the upper part being dry stone masonry, the lower being cut into the rock. In the sloping area in front of the broch entrance are traces of "out-buildings" now covered with turf. A wall, ditch and rampart, which probably once encircled the broch, are still evident around the structure.

Excavations

The broch was excavated around 1862 ("shortly after the discovery of

Maes Howe Maeshowe (or Maes Howe; ) is a Neolithic chambered cairn and passage grave situated on Mainland Orkney, Scotland. It was probably built around . In the archaeology of Scotland, it gives its name to the Maeshowe type of chambered cairn, which ...

") by the estate-workers of Colonel D. Balfour under the direction of the antiquarian George Petrie. Petrie made notes on the structures while Sir Henry Dryden made a plan of them. Excavation was confined to the interior of the broch and to a small area immediately outside the entrance. Little information is known about the finds. According to Petrie, they were mostly deer-horn fragments, many ox and sheep bones and "several rude stone vessels of different sizes", including a possible triangular lamp.

Bibliography

* C. Michael Hogan, California Arts and Sciences Institute casicalifornia.org (2007) ''Burroughston Broch'' Megalithic Portal https://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=7891 * C. Michael Hogan, California Arts and Sciences Institute casicalifornia.org (2007) ''Hilloch of Burroughston, Broch'' Modern Antiquarian. https://www.themodernantiquarian.com/post/63606/images/hillock_of_burroughston.html * Spotting History (2023) ''Burroughston Broch, Orkney Islands'' https://www.spottinghistory.com/view/4576/burroughston-broch/

References

External links