HER:  Highland HER MHG11106 (None)
NMR:  NC 75 SW 11 (6299)
SM:  1860
NGR:  NC 7265 5188
X:  272650  Y:  951880  (OSGB36)
The remains of this broch, which has been reduced to little more than a mound of rubble, stand in the centre of an outer enclosure occupying the summit of a hillock overlooking the haughland on the E side of the River Naver. The outer enclosure measures about 37m from N to S by 28m transversely (0.08ha) within a rampart that barely rises above the level of the interior but drops up to 3.5m to the bottom of an external ditch which can be traced round the broch everywhere except on the steep western flank; a counterscarp bank is also present on the E. The entrance is on the SE, forming a hollow cutting through the rim of the hillock to approach the entrance of the broch; on its NE side it is flanked by a low bank.The relationship between the broch and the surrounding defences is unknown.
Citizen Science:  ✗
Reliability of Data:  Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation:  Unconfirmed
X:  -465649  Y:  8059621  (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude:  -4.182999116163185  Latitude:  58.43670773293372  (EPSG:4326)
Country:  Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority:  Highland
Historic County:  Sutherland
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland:  Farr
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:  43.0m
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:   | None |
None
1st Identified Written Reference (1864):   | Noted by Rev J M Joass (1864, 360) |
Other (1867):   | Ms notes by James Horsburgh (RCAHMS DC 53087; Horsburgh 1868, 272) |
1st Identified Map Depiction (1873):   | Named in Gothic type on the 1st edition OS 6-inch map (Sutherland 1878, sheet 27) |
Other (1909):   | Description (RCAHMS 1911, 60, 181) |
Other (1938):   | Scheduled |
Other (1960):   | Visited by the OS |
Other (1978):   | Revised at 1:10,000 by the OS |
Other (1985):   | Description and sketch-plan (Swanson 1988, 727-9, cited in MacKie 2007, 635) |
Featureless apart from the broch
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   | ✗ |
An iron arrowhead (GA 1265) from outside the broch and a flint (AB 2655) are in the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland
No Known Finds   | ✗ |
Pottery   | ✗ |
Metal   | ✗ |
Metalworking   | ✓ |
Human Bones   | ✗ |
Animal Bones   | ✗ |
Lithics   | ✓ |
Environmental   | ✗ |
Other   | ✗ |
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 (South east):   | None |
Rampart and external ditch, in places with counterscarp bank
Area 1:   | 0.08ha. |
Total:   | 0.08ha. |
Total Footprint Area:  0.23ha.
None
✗   | None |
✓   | This excludes the broch wall |
NE Quadrant:   | 1 |
SE Quadrant:   | 1 |
SW Quadrant:   | 1 |
NW Quadrant:   | 1 |
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   | ✗ |
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:  1
✗   | None |
Horsburgh, J (1868) Notes of Cromlechs, Duns, Hut-Circles, Chambered Cairns, and other Remains, in the County of Sutherland. Proc Soc Antiq Scot 7 (1866-8), 271-9
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
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