Satellite Imagery
Satellite Imagery
HER: Highland HER MHG39521 (None)
NMR: ND 07 SW 4 (8019)
SM: 90086
NGR: ND 0248 7012
X: 302485 Y: 970125 (OSGB36)
The broch between St Mary's Chapel (Canmore 8005) and the coastal cliffs at Crosskirk stood behind an outer wall, which had been drawn across the neck of the shallow promontory to enclose an area measuring at least 60m from E to W by 30m transversely. The wall measured in the order of 5m in thickness and was still standing 1.25m high, and it was pierced on the S by an entrance with stone slab checks and a bar-hole. The broch was first surveyed in detail in 1871 by Sir Henry Dryden (RCAHMS CAD 68/1), while in 1910 Alexander Curle noted the outer wall, but following excavations by Horace Fairhurst 1966-72 to mitigate the impact of coastal erosion, the greater part the broch and the surrounding structures was bulldozed over the edge of the cliff. The excavation revealed a complex sequence in which the excavator believed that the broch, and a settlement that subsequently developed around it, had succeeded an earlier promontory fort (Fairhurst 1984). No stratigraphic evidence was advanced to sustain this aspect of the sequence, which seems largely based on the character of the pottery found on the floor of a mural cell that was uncovered, and the evidence of activity preceding what was considered to be the primary broch floor. Seven radiocarbon dates that were obtained merely suggest that the origins of the site lie rather earlier than the dates that would have been ascribed to the broch on the strength of sherds of Samian and late Roman ware (see discussion by Mackie 2007, 407-26). Though little of the assemblage recovered from the broch and the later settlement can be ascribed to an earlier occupation, it also included: plain coarse sherds and decorated pottery; bronze ring-headed pins and spiral finger rings; both rotary and saddle querns; a painted pebble; stone lamps, whetstones, spindle whorls and discs; weaving combs and other bone tools; six beads; and a Pictish symbol stone had been found previously.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Unconfirmed
X: -409664 Y: 8096177 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -3.6800721713753566 Latitude: 58.608180472216084 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Highland
Historic County: Caithness
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Reay
Bulldozed after excavation in advance of coastal erosion. Basal elements of the broch and outer defences probably survived the bulldozing, so much so that the site was Scheduled in 1995
| 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: 12.0m
N/A
Seven old radiocarbon dates and sherds of Samian and late Roman Castor Ware indicate the sequence of occupation here extends from at least the late 1st millennium BC and through the first half of the 1st millennium AD. A Pictish symbol stone is also said to have been found in the ruins of the broch
Reliability: D - None
| Pre 1200BC | ✗ |
| 1200BC - 800BC | ✗ |
| 800BC - 400BC | ✗ |
| 400BC - AD50 | ✗ |
| AD50 - AD400 | ✗ |
| AD400 - AD 800 | ✗ |
| Post AD800 | ✗ |
| Unknown | ✓ |
| Pre Hillfort: | None |
| Post Hillfort: | Insertion of a broch and the development of a later settlement |
| Artefactual: | Sherds of Samian and Castor Ware |
| C14: | Seven old radiocarbon dates |
None
| Earthwork Survey (1871): | Plan of the broch by Sir Henry Dryden (RCAHMS CAD 68/1) |
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1872): | Annotated Brough on the 1st edition OS 25-inch map (Caithness 1876, sheet 4.7) |
| Other (1910): | Description by Alexander Curle (RCAHMS 1911, 93, no.347) |
| Other (1964): | Surveyed at 1:2500 by the OS |
| Excavation (1966): | Directed by Horace Fairhurst (Fairhurst et al 1966; Fairhurst 1984) |
| Excavation (1969): | Directed by Horace Fairhurst (Fairhurst 1969; Fairhurst 1984) |
| Excavation (1970): | Directed by Horace Fairhurst (Fairhurst and Taylor 1970; Fairhurst 1984) |
| Excavation (1971): | Directed by Horace Fairhurst (Fairhurst and Taylor 1971; Fairhurst 1984) |
| Excavation (1972): | Directed by Horace Fairhurst (Fairhurst and Taylor 1972; Fairhurst 1984) |
| Other (1981): | Visited by the OS |
None
Well discovered within the broch
| 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 | ✓ |
Broch and stone structures
| 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 | ✗ |
decorated pottery; bronze ring-headed pins and spiral finger rings; both rotary and saddle querns; a painted pebble; stone lamps, whetstones, spindle whorls and discs; weaving combs and other bone tools; six beads; and a Pictish symbol stone had been found previously. Several burials had also been inserted into the site.
| 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 | ✗ |
None
| 1: | None |
| 2: | None |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
| 1. Other Forms (South): | Simple gap with checks and a barhole |
Single wall cutting off a coastal promontory
| Area 1: | 0.14ha. |
| Total: | 0.14ha. |
Total Footprint Area: Noneha.
None
| ✗ | None |
| ✗ | None |
| NE Quadrant: | 0 |
| 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 | ✗ |
None
| None | ✗ |
| Earthen Bank | ✗ |
| Stone Wall | ✓ |
| Rubble | ✗ |
| Wall-walk | ✗ |
| Evidence of Timber | ✗ |
| Vitrification | ✗ |
| Other Burning | ✗ |
| Palisade | ✗ |
| Counter Scarp Bank | ✗ |
| Berm | ✗ |
| Unfinished | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
Mural chamber
| 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 |
| ✓ | 'hollows' discovered outside the wall |
Number of Ditches: 1
| ✗ | None |
Fairhurst, H (1969) 'Crosskirk, broch'. Disc Exc Scot (1969), 16
Fairhurst, H (1984) Excavations at Crosskirk broch, Caithness. Soc Antiq Scot Monogr 3. Edinburgh
Fairhurst, H and Taylor, D B (1970) 'Crosskirk, broch'. Disc Exc Scot (1970), 19-20
Fairhurst, H and Taylor, D B (1971) 'Crosskirk, broch'. Disc Exc Scot (1971), 53
Fairhurst, H and Taylor, D B (1972) 'Crosskirk, broch and settlement site'. Disc Exc Scot (1972), 54
Fairhurst, H, Taylor, D B, and Morrison, A. (1966) 'Crosskirk broch'. Disc Exc Scot (1966), 19-20
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: Oxford.
RCAHMS (1911) The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments and Constructions of Scotland. Third report and inventory of monuments and constructions in the county of Caithness. HMSO, London
Robertson, A S (1970) 'Roman finds from non-Roman sites in Scotland' Britannia 1 (1970), 198-226 (Table 2)
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