Satellite Imagery
Satellite Imagery
HER: Orkney Islands 259534 (None)
NMR: HY 75 SE 3 (3679)
SM: 1427
NGR: HY 7627 5138
X: 376270 Y: 1051380 (OSGB36)
The broch that stands on the Point of Burrian, which is the southernmost tip of North Ronaldsay, occupies all that is left of a low promontory of rock enclosed on the landward side by a series of walls or ramparts. The greater part of the promontory, however, is now swept bare by the sea, and but for the maintenance of the sheep dyke acting as a seawall round the seaward side the broch would have been destroyed long since. The broch, which was excavated by Dr William Traill 1870-1 (1880), measures some 9.4m in diameter within a wall up to 4.5m in thickness at the checked entrance on the SE; it also displays several other architectural features, including a scarcement, a mural cell and a well. The outer defences comprise up to four roughly concentric walls or ramparts drawn in a shallow arc across the landward approach from the NW. All have been severely reduced, but geophysical survey by Orkney College in 2005 suggests differences in their construction and also revealed elements of an extensive extramural settlement (Sharman 2005). The surviving area of the interior measures about 40m from NE to SW immediately to the rear of these defences by a maximum of 30m transversely (0.07ha), though it may once have extended considerably further on the seaward side. The location is not typical of promontory forts and the relationship between the broch and the outer defences is not known, but there is no reason why this was not the site of a free-standing promontory enclosure prior to the construction of the broch.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Unconfirmed
X: -269279 Y: 8256030 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -2.418976593237098 Latitude: 59.34819828091475 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Orkney Islands
Historic County: Orkney
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Cross And Burness
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: 5.0m
N/A
Large assemblage of material principally from the broch and secondary occupation within it, including pictish symbols inscribed on bone and an ogam-inscribed cross-slab.
Reliability: B - Medium
| Pre 1200BC | ✗ |
| 1200BC - 800BC | ✗ |
| 800BC - 400BC | ✗ |
| 400BC - AD50 | ✗ |
| AD50 - AD400 | ✓ |
| AD400 - AD 800 | ✓ |
| Post AD800 | ✗ |
| Unknown | ✗ |
| Pre Hillfort: | None |
| Post Hillfort: | None |
| Artefactual: | None |
None
| Excavation (1870): | by William Traill (1880) |
| Excavation (1871): | by William Traill (1880) |
| Earthwork Survey (1871): | By Henry Dryden (RCAHMS ORD 14/9 & DP150176) |
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1879): | Named in Gothic type on the 1st edition OS 25-inch map (Orkney 1882, sheet 72.16) |
| Earthwork Survey (1928): | Plan and description (RCAHMS 1946, ii, 45-7, no.193, figs 88-91) |
| Other (1949): | Scheduled |
| Other (1970): | Surveyed at 1:2500 by the OS |
| Other (1999): | Coastal Zone Assessment Survey (Moore & Wilson 1999) |
| Other (2000): | Re-Scheduled |
| Geophysical Survey (2005): | By Orkney College and watching brief for remedial works (Sharman 2005) |
| Other (2005): | Stray finds picked up (Heald 2005) |
Occupied by broch and later buildings
In the broch
| None | ✗ |
| Spring | ✗ |
| Stream | ✗ |
| Pool | ✗ |
| Flush | ✗ |
| Well | ✓ |
| Other | ✗ |
Broch and post-broch buildings
| No Known Features | ✗ |
| Round Stone Structures | ✗ |
| Rectangular Stone Structures | ✗ |
| Curvilinear Platforms | ✗ |
| Other Roundhouse Evidence | ✗ |
| Pits | ✗ |
| Quarry Hollows | ✗ |
| Other | ✓ |
Broch and extramural structures
| No Known Excavation | ✗ |
| Pits | ✗ |
| Postholes | ✗ |
| Roundhouses | ✗ |
| Rectangular Structures | ✗ |
| Roads/Tracks | ✗ |
| Quarry Hollows | ✗ |
| Other | ✓ |
| Nothing Found | ✗ |
No details and only a general commentary published (Sarman 2005)
| No Known Geophysics | ✗ |
| Pits | ✗ |
| Roundhouses | ✗ |
| Rectangular Structures | ✗ |
| Roads/Tracks | ✗ |
| Quarry Hollows | ✗ |
| Other | ✓ |
| Nothing Found | ✗ |
An extensive assemblage (Traill 1880; Proc Soc Antiq Scot 8 (1872-74) 5-23; MacGregor 1974). Several bronze pins and brooch fragments. Iron finds include: an ecclesiastical bell of Celtic Church type: knife blades; an arrowhead; a spear or dart head; ferrules; a hatchet; rings; a piece of sheet; and some rivets or nailheads. A wide range of bone tools, including long-handled combs, coms, handles, pins and needles. Stone artefacts include a bar share, spindle whorls, painted pebbles, querns, hammers, pot lids, and a fragment of a steatite vessel. Small assemblage of pottery, and a glass bead and a piece of glass.
| 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 | ✓ |
None known
| 0: | None |
| 2: | Not known |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
Four walls or ramparts cutting off a promontory
| Area 1: | 0.07ha. |
| Total: | 0.07ha. |
Total Footprint Area: Noneha.
None
| ✗ | Area is heavily reduced by erosion |
| ✗ | Broch wall is excluded |
| NE Quadrant: | 0 |
| SE Quadrant: | 0 |
| SW Quadrant: | 0 |
| NW Quadrant: | 4 |
| Total: | 4 |
| 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 recorded |
Number of Ditches: None
| ✗ | None |
Heald, A (2005) 'Broch of Burrian, North Ronaldsay, Orkney (Cross & Burness parish), Iron Age comb; stone spindle whorl'. Disc Exc Scot 6 (2005), 97
Hedges, J W (1987) Bu, Gurness and the brochs of Orkney, part 3: the brochs of Orkney. Brit Archaeol Rep, British Series 165. BAR: Oxford (p 126-7)
MacKie, E W (2002) The roundhouses, brochs and wheelhouses of Atlantic Scotland c. 700BC - AD500: architecture and material culture Part 1 - The Orkney and Shetland Isles. Brit Archaeol Rep, British Ser 342. BAR: Oxford
MacGregor, A (1975) 'The Broch of Burrian, North Ronaldsay, Orkney'. Proc Soc Antiq Scot 105 (1972-4), 63-118
RCAHMS (1946) The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. Twelfth report with an inventory of the ancient monuments of Orkney and Shetland, 3v. HMSO: Edinburgh
Sharman, P (2005) 'Broch of Burrian, North Ronaldsay, Orkney (Cross & Burness parish), evaluation; geophysical survey'. Disc Exc Scot, New Ser, 6 (2005), 97
Traill, W (1880) 'Results of excavations at the broch of Burrian, North Ronaldsay, Orkney, during the summers of 1870-1871'. Archaeologia Scotica 5.2 (1880), 341-64
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