Satellite Imagery
Satellite Imagery
HER: Highland HER MHG11156 (None)
NMR: NC 71 SE 13 (6056)
SM: 1843
NGR: NC 7957 1337
X: 279570 Y: 913370 (OSGB36)
The broch that stands on the E bank of the Black Water, occupying the crest of a precipitous hillock which drops away sharply to the river along its SW flank, is also enclosed by the remains of walls that are usually regarded as outworks. Indeed the outer wall on the SE appears to abut the broch wall on the E, though in the opinion of the John MacRae, the OS surveyor who visited in 1976, this sector has been rebuilt. Elsewhere, it is reduced to no more than a band of rubble extending along the lip of the summit, not only forming an outer enclosure in front of the broch entrance on the SE, but also around the less obviously accessible area to its rear on the NW. While it may be a contemporary outwork, it is equally possible that these are the remains of an earlier enclosure on the hillock measuring about 45m from NW to SE by up to 15m transversely (0.05ha). The broch itself still stands 3m high in places and displays several architectural features, including the checked and roofed entrance passage, bar-holes, a guard chamber, aumbries in the inner wall-face and mural galleries. A wall extending around the foot of the hillock on the NE is probably a later stock boundary.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Unconfirmed
X: -450237 Y: 7986882 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -4.044546787732934 Latitude: 58.09301137023482 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Highland
Historic County: Sutherland
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Clyne
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: 85.0m
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: | Possibly overlain by broch |
None
| 1st Identified Written Reference (1776): | Charles Cordiner (1780, 73-5) |
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1871): | Annotated Pictish Tower on the 1st edition OS 6-inch map (Sutherland 1879, sheet 88; Name Book, Sutherland, No.26, p 68) |
| Other (1880): | Description and sketch-plan by Sir Arthur Mitchell (1881, 310-11, figs 6, 7, & 10) |
| Other (1909): | Description and plan of broch (RCAHMS 1911, 7-9, no.25, fig 1) |
| Other (1935): | Scheduled |
| Other (1963): | Description by Euan MacKie (2007, 632-3) |
| Other (1964): | Visited by the OS |
| Earthwork Survey (1976): | Revised at 1:10,000 by the OS and planned at 1:625 by John MacRae |
| Earthwork Survey (1985): | Euan MacKie planned the central court of the broch (2007, 632-3). |
Occupied by the broch midway along the summit of the hillock
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 | ✗ |
None
| 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: ✗
Single wall round the summit
| Area 1: | 0.05ha. |
| Total: | 0.05ha. |
Total Footprint Area: Noneha.
None
| ✗ | None |
| ✗ | Excludes the broch wall |
| NE Quadrant: | 1 |
| SE Quadrant: | 1 |
| SW Quadrant: | 0 |
| 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: None
| ✗ | None |
Cordiner, C (1780) Antiquities & Scenery of the North of Scotland, in a Series of Letters to Thomas Pennant, Esqr. London
Feachem, R (1963) A guide to prehistoric Scotland. Batsford: London (p 173)
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
Mitchell, A (1881) 'Notice of Buildings designed for Defence on an Island in a Loch at Hogsetter, in Whalsay, Shetland'. Proc Soc Antiq Scot 15 (1880-1), 305-15
Name Book, Ordnance Survey Object Name Books (6 inch and 1/2500 scale); available https://www.scotlandsplaces.gov.uk/
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