Broch

A Broch is an Iron Age drystone hollow-walled structure of a type found only in Scotland. Brochs include some of the most sophisticated examples of drystone architecture ever created, and belong to the classification "complex Atlantic Roundhouse" devised by Scottish archaeologists in the 1980s. Their origin is a matter of some controversy, and the theory that they were essentially defensive military structures is not accepted by many modern archaeologists. They were almost certainly originally roofed and although most are singular features of the landscape, some examples exist of brochs surrounded by clusters of smaller dwellings. __TOC__

Origin and definition

The word "broch" is derived from Old Norse "borg" meaning "fort". Various other English language derivatives have also been used including "brough", "borough" and "borve". [Armit (2003) p. 13.] A precise definition has proven to be elusive as they are the most spectacular of a complex class of roundhouse buildings found throughout "Atlantic Scotland". The Shetland Amenity Trust list about 120 sites in Shetland as candidate brochs, perhaps an overestimate, while "The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historic Monuments of Scotland" identify a total of 571 candidate broch sites throughout the country. Researcher Euan MacKie has proposed a much smaller total for Scotland of 104. [Armit (2003) p. 16.]

The origin of brochs is a subject of continuing research. Sixty years ago most archaeologists believed that brochs were built by an influx of immigrants who had been displaced and pushed northward first by the intrusions of Belgic tribes into south-east England towards the end of the second century BC and later by the Roman invasion of southern England from AD 43 onwards. Yet there was never any doubt that the hollow-walled broch tower was a purely Scottish invention, or that even the kinds of pottery found within them that most resembled south English styles were local hybrid forms. The first of the modern review articles on the subject (MacKie 1965) [MacKie, E. W. (1965) 'The origin and development of the broch and wheelhouse building cultures of the Scottish Iron Age'. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 31, pages 93-146.] did not, as is commonly believed, advocate the view that brochs were built by immigrants but rather that a hybrid culture of a small number of immigrants and the native population of the Hebrides produced them in the first century BC from earlier, simpler promontory forts. This view contrasts for example with that of Sir Lindsay Scott who argued [ Scott, Sir Lindsay (1947), ‘The problem of the brochs’, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 13, pages 1-36.] —following Childe (1935) [ Childe, V. G. (1935) "The Prehistory of Scotland". London.] —for a wholesale migration into Atlantic Scotland of people from south-west England.

Even this 1965 theory has fallen from favour, mainly because in the 1970s there was a general move away from 'diffusionist' explanations in archaeology towards those involving indigenous development. However, the increasing number of radiocarbon dates for the primary use of brochs (as opposed to their later, secondary use) still suggest that most of the towers were built in the 1st centuries BC and AD. [Parker Pearson, M. & Sharples, N. "et al" (1999) "Between land and sea: excavations at Dun Vulan, South Uist". Sheffield.] A few such dates may be earlier, notably Old Scatness Broch in Shetland, where a sheep bone dating to 390–200 BC has been reported [Dockrill, S. J., Outram, Z. and Batt, C. M. (2006) Time and place: a new chronology for the origin of the broch based on the scientific dating programme at the Old Scatness Broch, Shetland, "PSAS", v. 136, p. 89-110, ISSN 0081-1564] The other broch claimed to be substantially older than the 1st century BC is Crosskirk in Caithness but a new review of the evidence suggests that it cannot plausibly be assigned a date earlier than the 1st centuries BC/AD [MacKie, E. W. (2007) "The Roundhouses, Brochs and Wheelhouses of Atlantic Scotland c. 700 BC - AD 500: architecture and material culture. Part 2 The Mainland and the Western Islands". British Archaeological Reports British Series (forthcoming). Oxford.] [For the C14 dates for the Shetland sites see [http://www.shetland-heritage.co.uk/amenitytrust/archaeology/scatness/scatness_2002.html Shetland Amenity Trust] Retrieved 14 August 2007.]

Distribution

The distribution of brochs is centred on northern Scotland. Caithness and the Northern Isles have the densest concentrations, but there are also a great many examples in the Hebrides and Sutherland.

Although mainly concentrated in the northern Highlands and the Islands, some examples occur in the borders (for example Edin's Hall Broch), on the west coast of Dumfries and Galloway and near Stirling. 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.

From the 1930s to the 1960s, archaeologists like V. Gordon Childe, Sir Lindsay Scott and John Hamilton [Hamilton, J.R.C. (1968) "Excavations at Clickhimin, Shetland". Edinburgh.] regarded them as castles where local landowners held sway over a subject population.

These theories fell from favour among Scottish archaeologists in the 1980s, due to a lack of supporting archaeological evidence. These archaeologists suggested that defensibility was never a major concern in the siting of a broch, and have 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, there is a lack of archaeological proof for this reconstruction.

Brochs' close groupings and sheer numbers 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: a good example is at Burland near Gulberwick in Shetland. Often they are at key strategic points. In Shetland they cluster round narrow stretches of water: the broch of Mousa, for instance, is directly opposite another at Burraland in Sandwick. In Orkney there are about 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 were forts put up by a military society to scan and protect the countryside and seas. [Stewart, J. (1956) "An Outline of Shetland Archaeology", Lerwick : Shetland Times Ltd.]

The key difference seems to be between those who regard brochs as an architectural puzzle, and those who consider them as a social-historical problem.

Some archaeologists are now inclined to consider broch sites individually, doubting that there ever was a single common purpose for which every broch was constructed. There are differences between the various areas in which brochs are found, with regard to position, dimensions and likely status. For example, the broch 'villages' which occur at a few places in Orkney have no parallel in the Western Isles.

tructures

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. There are five extant examples of towers with significantly higher walls: Dun Carloway on Lewis, Dun Telve and Dun Troddan in Glenelg, Mousa in Shetland and Dun Dornaigil in Sutherland, all of whose walls exceed 6.5 m (21 ft) in height. [Armit (2003) p. 55.] Mousa's walls are the best preserved and are still 13 m tall, however it is not clear how many brochs originally stood this high. A frequent characteristic is that the walls are galleried (the outer and inner wall skins are separate but tied together with linking stone slabs, with an open space between). These linking slabs may in some cases have served as steps to higher floors. Beside the door, it is normal for there to be a cell breaking off from the passage; 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. Though there was much argument in the past, it is now generally accepted that brochs were roofed, probably with a conical timber framed roof covered with a locally sourced thatch. The evidence for this assertion is still fairly scanty, though excavations at Dun Bharabhat, Lewis, have supported this interpretation. The main difficulty with this interpretation continues to be the potential source of structural timber, though bog and driftwood may have been plentiful sources.

On the islands of Orkney and Shetland there are very few cells at ground floor. However, most brochs have scarcements (ledges) which would have allowed the construction of a very sturdy wooden first floor (first spotted by the antiquary George Low in Shetland in 1774), and excavations at Loch na Berie on the Isle of Lewis show signs of a further, second floor (eg stairs on the first floor, which head upwards). Some brochs such as Dun Dornaigill and Culswick in Shetland have unusual triangular lintels above the entrance door. [ [http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=1252119992 "Dun Dornaigil"] The Megalithic Portal. Retrieved 11 May 2008.] [ [http://www.rockstanza.info/node/11 "Culswick"] RockStanza. Retrieved 11 May 2008.]

As in the case of Old Scatness in Shetland (near Jarlshof and Burroughston on Shapinsay, brochs were sometimes located close to arable land and a source of water (some have wells or natural springs rising within their central space). [Hogan, C. Michael (Oct. 7, 2007) [http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=7891 "Burroughston Broch"] The Megalithic Portal. Retrieved 11 May 2008.] Sometimes, on the other hand, they were sited in wilderness areas (e.g. Levenwick and Culswick in Shetland, Castle Cole in Sutherland). Brochs are often built beside the sea; sometimes they are on islands in lochs (e.g. Clickimin in Shetland).

About 20 Orcadian broch sites include small settlements of stone buildings surrounding the main tower. Examples include Howe, near Stromness, Gurness Broch in the north west of Mainland, Orkney, Midhowe on Rousay and Lingro near Kirkwall. There are "broch village" sites in Caithness, but elsewhere they are unknown. [Armit (2003) p. 95-106.]

Most brochs are unexcavated [ Armit (2003) p. 51 notes that of 140 Atlantic roundhouses in the Outer Hebrides only 14 have been "at least partially excavated".] but many of those that have been properly examined show that they continued in use for many centuries, although the interiors were often modified and changed, and they underwent many phases of habitation and abandonment. The end of the broch period par excellence seems to have come around AD 200-300.

The skills involved in broch building are currently being explored by drystone dyker Irwin Campbell [ [http://www.brochbuild.co.uk/ Irwin Campbell] brochbuild.co.uk. Retrieved 11 May 2008.] and AOC Archaeology Ltd., based in Edinburgh.

ee also

* Atlantic Roundhouses
* Crannog
* Hill fort
* Dun
* Tower house
* Nuraghe
* Round tower

References and footnotes

;General references
* Armit, I. (1991) [http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/adsdata/PSAS_2002/pdf/vol_121/121_181_214.pdf The Atlantic Scottish Iron Age: five levels of chronology] , "Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot." v. 121, p. 181-214, ISSN 0081-1564
* Armit, I. (1996) "The Archaeology of Skye and the Western Isles", Edinburgh University Press, ISBN 0-7486-0640-8
* Armit, I. (2003) "Towers in the North: The Brochs of Scotland", Stroud : Tempus, ISBN 0-7524-1932-3
* Ballin Smith, B. and Banks, I. (eds) (2002) "In the Shadow of the Brochs, the Iron Age in Scotland", Stroud : Tempus, ISBN 0-7524-2517-X
* Fojut, N. (1982) Towards a Geography of Shetland Brochs, "Glasgow Archaeological Journal", v. 9, p. 38-59, ISSN 0305-8980
* Harding, D.W. (2000) [http://www.arcl.ed.ac.uk/arch/publications/hebrides/ "The Hebridean Iron Age: Twenty Years’ Research"] , University of Edinburgh Department of Archaeology, Occasional Paper No. 20, ISSN: 0144-3313
* Harding, D.W. (2004) "The Iron Age in Northern Britain", London : Routledge, ISBN 0-415-30150-5
* Hingley, R (1992) [http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/adsdata/PSAS_2002/pdf/vol_122/122_007_053.pdf Society in Scotland from 700 BC to 200 AD] , "Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot." v. 122, p. 7-53, ISSN 0081-1564.;Specific references and notes

Further reading

* 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.

External links

* [http://heritage.scotsman.com/places.cfm?id=282072006 "Towers of stone – the brochs of Scotland"] , from The Scotsman, February 27, 2006.
* [http://www.rockstanza.info Database of Iron Age Brochs in Shetland] , Licenced under the GNU Free Documentation License
* [http://www.pretanicworld.com/Monuments.html Pretanic World - Chart of Neolithic, Bronze Age and Celtic Stone Structures]
* [http://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/info/History/GlenelgBrochs Glenelg Brochs]
* [http://shetlopedia.com/Brochs_of_Shetland Shetlopedia: Brochs of Shetland]