Satellite Imagery
Satellite Imagery
HER: Highland HER MHG13002 (None)
NMR: NC 02 NW 2 (4499)
SM: 1831
NGR: NC 0366 2784
X: 203660 Y: 927840 (OSGB36)
The broch at Clachtoll stands on the elevated rock outcrops above the shore at the S end of the Bay of Stoer and is enclosed by an outer wall extending around its landward flank. Embedded in a mound of rubble, the stump of the broch measures about 9.7m in diameter within a wall up to 4.2m in thickness and in places 3m in height. Its architectural features include mural chambers, guard cells, a mural stair, a scarcement, an upper gallery, and a checked entrance with a bar-hole slot. At a later stage the passageway at the entrance, which is on the NE, has been extended outwards in what must be the arrangement of access leading from the entrance through the outer wall to both the broch and other structures. The outer wall is between 1.2m and 2m in thickness, but expands into terminals 4m thick to either side of the entrance, though this may be a development of the passageway leading to the broch. It encloses an area measuring about 45m from N to S by up to 26m transversely (0.1ha), most of the seaward flank being sloping bare rock; the whole of the southern end is covered with rubble from the broch, which occupies this end. The relationship between the broch and the outer wall is unknown.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Unconfirmed
X: -594709 Y: 8008524 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -5.342358931594539 Latitude: 58.19562230377644 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Highland
Historic County: Sutherland
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Assynt
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: 10.0m
N/A
No dating evidence from the most recent investigations has yet been advanced for either the broch or the outer defence
Reliability: D - None
| Pre 1200BC | ✗ |
| 1200BC - 800BC | ✗ |
| 800BC - 400BC | ✗ |
| 400BC - AD50 | ✗ |
| AD50 - AD400 | ✗ |
| AD400 - AD 800 | ✗ |
| Post AD800 | ✗ |
| Unknown | ✓ |
| Pre Hillfort: | None |
| Post Hillfort: | None |
Euan MacKie visited in 1984, 1988, 2001 and 2005. RCAHMS and Highland HER hold numerous photographs.
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1875): | Named in Gothic type and annotated '(Pictish)' on the 1st edition OS 6-inch map (Sutherland 1878, sheet 58) |
| Other (1909): | Description (RCAHMS 1911, 2-3, no.7) |
| Other (1935): | Scheduled |
| Other (1960): | Visited by the OS |
| Other (1974): | Surveyed at 1:1250 by Alan Ayre of the OS |
| Other (1980): | Visited by the OS |
| Other (1984): | Description by Euan MacKie (2007, 614-16) |
| Earthwork Survey (2008): | Plan by RCAHMS (GV005330 & SC1365665; SC1365663 ) |
| Earthwork Survey (2010): | Broch scanned by AOC archaeology (Cavers and Hudson 2010, 9-10, fig 9) |
| Excavation (2011): | Limited investigations of the broch as part of a programme of consolidation (Barber 2011) |
Largely occupied by the broch, what are probably fragments of associated structures and rubble
None
| None | ✓ |
| Spring | ✗ |
| Stream | ✗ |
| Pool | ✗ |
| Flush | ✗ |
| Well | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
Occupied by a broch and various structures probably associated with its occupation.
| 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 | ✗ |
Steatite cup apparently found by the Rev Joass, now in Dunrobin Museum; Euan MacKie found part of a rotary quern in the rubble of the wall.
| No Known Finds | ✓ |
| Pottery | ✗ |
| Metal | ✗ |
| Metalworking | ✗ |
| Human Bones | ✗ |
| Animal Bones | ✗ |
| Lithics | ✗ |
| Environmental | ✗ |
| Other | ✓ |
The broch
| APs Not Checked | ✗ |
| None | ✗ |
| Roundhouses | ✗ |
| Rectangular Structures | ✗ |
| Pits | ✗ |
| Postholes | ✗ |
| Roads/Tracks | ✗ |
| Other | ✓ |
See main summary
| 1: | None |
| 2: | None |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
| 1. Simple Gap (East): | Expanded wall terminals |
Single wall cutting off a promontory
| Area 1: | 0.1ha. |
| Total: | 0.1ha. |
Total Footprint Area: Noneha.
None
| ✗ | None |
| ✗ | This excludes the broch |
| NE Quadrant: | 1 |
| SE Quadrant: | 1 |
| SW Quadrant: | 0 |
| NW Quadrant: | 0 |
| Total: | 1 |
| Partial Univallate | ✓ |
| Univallate | ✗ |
| Partial Bivallate | ✗ |
| Bivallate | ✗ |
| Partial Multivallate | ✗ |
| Multivallate | ✗ |
| Unknown | ✗ |
| Partial Univallate | ✗ |
| Univallate | ✗ |
| Partial Bivallate | ✗ |
| Bivallate | ✗ |
| Partial Multivallate | ✗ |
| Multivallate | ✗ |
None
| None | ✗ |
| Earthen Bank | ✗ |
| Stone Wall | ✓ |
| Rubble | ✗ |
| Wall-walk | ✗ |
| Evidence of Timber | ✗ |
| Vitrification | ✗ |
| Other Burning | ✗ |
| Palisade | ✗ |
| Counter Scarp Bank | ✗ |
| Berm | ✗ |
| Unfinished | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
Minor excavation has focused on the broch
| 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 |
Barber, J (2011) 'Clachtoll Broch-Life and Death in Assynt's Past Project, Highland (Assynt parish), conservation work'. Disc Exc Scot, New Ser 12 (2011), 96-97
Cavers, G and Hudson G (2010) Assynt's Hidden Lives; An archaeological survey of the parish. AOC Archaeology Group: Loanhead
Feachem, R (1963) A guide to prehistoric Scotland. Batsford: London (p 174)
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 444(II), 444(1), 2 V. BAR: Oxford
RCAHMS (1911) The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments and Constructions of Scotland. Second report and inventory of monuments and constructions in the county of Sutherland. HMSO: 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