LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
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HER: Highland HER MHG10872 (None)
NMR: NC 80 SE 4 (6546)
SM: 90060
NGR: NC 8704 0137
X: 287040 Y: 901370 (OSGB36)
The broch known as Carn Liath stands roughly in the centre of a what no appears to be a flat-topped hillock, but the steep flanks between 4m and 5m high, which have been deliberately scarped, mask one enclosing wall extending round the rim of the hillock, otherwise only clearly visible on the NW, while excavations in 1986-7 revealed a second wall lower down the slope on the NE. The inner encloses an area measuring about 40m from NE to SW by about 35m transversely (0.11ha). The broch itself is relatively well-preserved, standing over 3m high and displaying numerous architectural features including the checked entrance with a guard cell on the E, a mural stair, a scarcement and an inserted internal skin of masonry. The area between the foot of the broch and the inner of the outer walls is evidently infilled with numerous structures and an extended entrance passage seems to have been added, leading from the broch outwards to the probable entrance through the outer wall on the ESE. The excavations recovered evidence of occupation and use pre-dating the construction of the broch and the outer walls (Love 1988). The relationship between the outer walls and the broch are unknown.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Unconfirmed
X: -435499 Y: 7964641 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -3.912152752375995 Latitude: 57.987257751121966 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Highland
Historic County: Sutherland
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Golspie
In Guardianship
| 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: 20.0m
N/A
The majority of the artefact assemblage is probably associated with the broch and the later occupation. It includes artefacts of Roman date
Reliability: D - None
| Pre 1200BC | ✗ |
| 1200BC - 800BC | ✗ |
| 800BC - 400BC | ✗ |
| 400BC - AD50 | ✗ |
| AD50 - AD400 | ✗ |
| AD400 - AD 800 | ✗ |
| Post AD800 | ✗ |
| Unknown | ✓ |
| Pre Hillfort: | Food vessel burial and evidence of pre-broch occupation |
| Post Hillfort: | None |
| Artefactual: | None |
Eaun MacKie also visited in 1971, 1985, and 2003. RCAHMS holds the excavation archives and both it and Highland HER have extensive photographic archives.
| 1st Identified Written Reference (1769): | Visited by Thomas Pennant (Pennant 1772, 156-7) |
| Excavation (1868): | By the 3rd Duke of Sutherland (Joass 1873, 102-7) |
| Other (1872): | Annotated Pictish Tower on the OS (Sutherland 1879, sheet 106) |
| Other (1909): | Description (RCAHMS 1911, 91-2, no.270) |
| Other (1935): | Scheduled |
| Other (1962): | Resurveyed at 1:2500 by the OS |
| Other (1963): | Description by Eaun MacKie (2007, 647) |
| Other (1971): | Clearance of the interior of the broch by a school party |
| Excavation (1972): | By John Corcoran |
| Earthwork Survey (1975): | Visited by the OS; plan at 1:625 by John MacRae |
| Excavation (1984): | Directed by Paula Love on behalf of the fore-runners of Historic Scotland (1984; 1988) |
| Excavation (1986): | Directed by Paula Love (1986; 1988) |
| Excavation (1987): | Directed by Paula Love (1987; 1988) |
Occupied by the broch and the secondary structures around its foot
None
| None | ✓ |
| Spring | ✗ |
| Stream | ✗ |
| Pool | ✗ |
| Flush | ✗ |
| Well | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
The various building remains are incoherent; broch
| No Known Features | ✗ |
| Round Stone Structures | ✗ |
| Rectangular Stone Structures | ✗ |
| Curvilinear Platforms | ✗ |
| Other Roundhouse Evidence | ✗ |
| Pits | ✗ |
| Quarry Hollows | ✗ |
| Other | ✓ |
Incoherent structural fragments
| 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 | ✗ |
Extensive assemblage of finds from the broch and the secondary structures built around it; includes evidence of shale working and ironworking, and crucible fragments. Roman goods include a fibula
| 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
| 1: | None |
| 2: | None |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
| 1. Simple Gap (East): | None |
At least one wall encircles the hillock, and a second has been located on the NE; the outer revealed evidence of two phases of construction.
| Area 1: | 0.11ha. |
| Total: | 0.11ha. |
Total Footprint Area: Noneha.
None
| ✗ | None |
| ✓ | Excludes the broch wall |
| NE Quadrant: | 2 |
| SE Quadrant: | 1 |
| SW Quadrant: | 1 |
| NW Quadrant: | 1 |
| Total: | 2 |
| 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 | ✗ |
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 |
Joass, J M (1890) 'The brochs or "Pictish Towers" of Cinn-Trolla, Carn-Liath, and Craig-Carril, in Sutherland, with notes on other northern brochs'. Archaeol Scot 5 (1890), 95-130
Pennant, T A Tour in Scotland MDCCLXIX (2nd ed). R White: London
Love, P (1984) 'Cairnliath (Golspie p) Broch'. Disc Exc Scot (1984), 15-16
Love, P (1986) 'Cairnliath (Golspie p) Broch'. Disc Exc Scot (1986), 18
Love, P (1987) 'Carn Liath (Golspie parish) Broch'. Disc Exc Scot (1987), 30
Love, P (1988) 'Recent excavations at Carn Liath broch, Golspie, Sutherland'. Glasgow Archaeol J 15 (1988), 157-69
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