HER:  Highland HER MHG5823 (None)
NMR:  NG 35 SE 3 (11144)
SM:  911
NGR:  NG 3511 5351
X:  135119  Y:  853514  (OSGB36)
The broch on the summit of a precipitous hillock at Flashader, which rises some 8m above the surrounding ground, probably lies within a larger enclosure. The wall of the outer enclosure extends round the margin of the summit, but it has been heavily robbed and mutilated; nevertheless successive OS surveyors visiting the broch identified the facing of a gallery in a mound of rubble on the E, and traced the band of rubble round the S and SW, enclosing an irregular area on the summit measuring about 40m from NE to SW by 35m transversely (0.13ha). Apart from the ruined broch, which measures about 10.3m in diameter within a wall 3.7m tin thickness and has an entrance on the WSW, there are evidently several structures between the broch and the outer wall on the summit area, including a later shieling hut, and there is what appears to be an entrance way leading up onto the summit on the SE. The relationships between all these features, however, are unknown.
Citizen Science:  ✗
Reliability of Data:  Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation:  Unconfirmed
X:  -714953  Y:  7861815  (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude:  -6.4225295642764495  Latitude:  57.4942409468849  (EPSG:4326)
Country:  Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority:  Highland
Historic County:  Inverness-shire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland:  Duirinish
None
Extant   | ✓ |
Cropmark   | ✗ |
Likely Destroyed   | ✗ |
None
Woodland   | ✗ |
Commercial Forestry Plantation   | ✗ |
Parkland   | ✗ |
Pasture (Grazing)   | ✓ |
Arable   | ✗ |
Scrub/Bracken   | ✗ |
Bare Outcrop   | ✗ |
Heather/Moorland   | ✓ |
Heath   | ✗ |
Built-up   | ✗ |
Coastal Grassland   | ✗ |
Other   | ✗ |
None
Contour Fort   | ✓ |
Partial Contour Fort   | ✗ |
Promontory Fort   | ✗ |
Hillslope Fort   | ✗ |
Level Terrain Fort   | ✗ |
Marsh Fort   | ✗ |
Multiple Enclosure Fort   | ✗ |
Hilltop   | ✗ |
Coastal Promontory   | ✗ |
Inland Promontory   | ✗ |
Valley Bottom   | ✗ |
Knoll/Hillock/Outcrop   | ✓ |
Ridge   | ✗ |
Cliff/Plateau-edge/Scarp   | ✗ |
Hillslope   | ✗ |
Lowland   | ✗ |
Spur   | ✗ |
Dominant Topographic Feature:  None
North   | ✗ |
Northeast   | ✗ |
East   | ✗ |
Southeast   | ✗ |
South   | ✗ |
Southwest   | ✗ |
West   | ✗ |
Northwest   | ✗ |
Level   | ✓ |
Altitude:  60.0m
N/A
In the absence of excavation, there are neither stratified artefacts nor radiocarbon dates to provide a chronology for the defences.
Reliability:  D - None
Pre 1200BC   | ✗ |
1200BC - 800BC   | ✗ |
800BC - 400BC   | ✗ |
400BC - AD50   | ✗ |
AD50 - AD400   | ✗ |
AD400 - AD 800   | ✗ |
Post AD800   | ✗ |
Unknown   | ✓ |
Pre Hillfort:   | None |
Post Hillfort:   | Heavy robbing and at least one shieling-type structure |
None
1st Identified Map Depiction (1875):   | Named in Gothic type on the 1st edition OS 25-inch map (Inverness-shire, Skye, sheet 16.11) |
Other (1915):   | Description (RCAHMS 1928, 160, no.513) |
Other (1960):   | Scheduled |
Other (1961):   | Visited by the OS; divorced survey at 1:1250 |
Other (1963):   | Visited by Euan MacKie (2007, 832-3) |
Other (1971):   | Visited by the OS |
Other (1984):   | Description and sketch-plan (MacSween 1985, 43, fig 15) |
Other (1985):   | Description and sketch-plan (Swanson 1985, 833-4, cited by MacKie 2007, 832-3) |
Other (1997):   | Re-Scheduled |
There are at least two hollows in the surface that may be the remains of circular structures, and also a two-celled shieling-type structure
None
None   | ✓ |
Spring   | ✗ |
Stream   | ✗ |
Pool   | ✗ |
Flush   | ✗ |
Well   | ✗ |
Other   | ✗ |
Broch
No Known Features   | ✗ |
Round Stone Structures   | ✓ |
Rectangular Stone Structures   | ✗ |
Curvilinear Platforms   | ✗ |
Other Roundhouse Evidence   | ✗ |
Pits   | ✗ |
Quarry Hollows   | ✗ |
Other   | ✓ |
None
No Known Excavation   | ✓ |
Pits   | ✗ |
Postholes   | ✗ |
Roundhouses   | ✗ |
Rectangular Structures   | ✗ |
Roads/Tracks   | ✗ |
Quarry Hollows   | ✗ |
Other   | ✗ |
Nothing Found   | ✗ |
None
No Known Geophysics   | ✓ |
Pits   | ✗ |
Roundhouses   | ✗ |
Rectangular Structures   | ✗ |
Roads/Tracks   | ✗ |
Quarry Hollows   | ✗ |
Other   | ✗ |
Nothing Found   | ✗ |
None
No Known Finds   | ✓ |
Pottery   | ✗ |
Metal   | ✗ |
Metalworking   | ✗ |
Human Bones   | ✗ |
Animal Bones   | ✗ |
Lithics   | ✗ |
Environmental   | ✗ |
Other   | ✗ |
NO APPARENT FEATURES
APs Not Checked   | ✗ |
None   | ✓ |
Roundhouses   | ✗ |
Rectangular Structures   | ✗ |
Pits   | ✗ |
Postholes   | ✗ |
Roads/Tracks   | ✗ |
Other   | ✗ |
See main summary
0:   | None |
2:   | Possibly on the SE |
Guard Chambers:  ✗
Chevaux de Frise:  ✗
Single galleried wall
Area 1:   | 0.13ha. |
Total:   | 0.13ha. |
Total Footprint Area:  Noneha.
None
✗   | None |
✗   | Excludes the broch wall |
NE Quadrant:   | 1 |
SE Quadrant:   | 1 |
SW Quadrant:   | 1 |
NW Quadrant:   | 0 |
Total:   | 1 |
Partial Univallate   | ✓ |
Univallate   | ✗ |
Partial Bivallate   | ✗ |
Bivallate   | ✗ |
Partial Multivallate   | ✗ |
Multivallate   | ✗ |
Unknown   | ✗ |
Partial Univallate   | ✗ |
Univallate   | ✗ |
Partial Bivallate   | ✗ |
Bivallate   | ✗ |
Partial Multivallate   | ✗ |
Multivallate   | ✗ |
Possible gallery
None   | ✗ |
Earthen Bank   | ✗ |
Stone Wall   | ✓ |
Rubble   | ✗ |
Wall-walk   | ✗ |
Evidence of Timber   | ✗ |
Vitrification   | ✗ |
Other Burning   | ✗ |
Palisade   | ✗ |
Counter Scarp Bank   | ✗ |
Berm   | ✗ |
Unfinished   | ✗ |
Other   | ✓ |
None
None   | ✗ |
Earthen Bank   | ✗ |
Stone Wall   | ✗ |
Murus Duplex   | ✗ |
Timber-framed   | ✗ |
Timber-laced   | ✗ |
Vitrification   | ✗ |
Other Burning   | ✗ |
Palisade   | ✗ |
Counter Scarp Bank   | ✗ |
Berm   | ✗ |
Unfinished   | ✗ |
No Known Excavation   | ✓ |
Other   | ✗ |
✗   | None |
✗   | None |
Number of Ditches:  None
✗   | None |
MacKie, E W (2007) The Roundhouses, Brochs and Wheelhouses of Atlantic Scotland c.700 BC-AD 500: architecture and material culture, the Northern and Southern Mainland and the Western Islands. BAR British series (2 V): Oxford
MacSween, A (1985) The Broch, Duns and Enclosures of Skye. Northern Archaeology 5-6 (1984-85), 1-57
RCAHMS (1928) The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments and Constructions of Scotland. Ninth report with inventory of monuments and constructions in the Outer Hebrides, Skye and the Small Isles. HMSO: Edinburgh
Swanson, C B (1988) A contribution to the understanding of brochs, Unpublished Ph D thesis. University of Edinburgh
Atlas of Hillforts:
Wikidata:
This work is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 and should be cited as:
Lock, Gary and Ralston, Ian. 2024. Atlas of Hillforts of Britain and Ireland. Available at: https://hillforts.arch.ox.ac.uk
Document Version 1.1