Satellite Imagery
Satellite Imagery
HER: Orkney Islands 3350 (None)
NMR: HY 62 SE 1 (3350)
SM: 5631
NGR: HY 6904 2146
X: 369040 Y: 1021460 (OSGB36)
The broch on Lamb Head stands at the root of a precipitous promontory which is also defended on the SW landward side by a ditch some 8m broad and 1m deep. Largely reduced to a mound of rubble and overlain by an old sheepfold, the broch measures about 11m in daimeter within a wall 4.9m in thickness and the entrance on the WNW is flanked by opposing guard chambers, both of which were still accessible in 1979 via holes in their roofs. RCAHMS investigators observed traces of secondary structures within the broch and others are almost certainly incorporated into the mound. The ditch visible on the SW cuts off an area measuring 70m from NE to SW by about 45m transversely (0.32ha). The position of the entrance is not known.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Unconfirmed
X: -282955 Y: 8197492 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -2.541825589424087 Latitude: 59.07905034589232 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Orkney Islands
Historic County: Orkney
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Stronsay
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: 10.0m
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 the insertion of the broch and overlain by a sheepfold |
None
| Other (1851): | Elevation of the guard chambers by R Heddle for Captain F W Thomas sometime 1848-50 (Thomas 1852, 123, 130 fig) |
| Earthwork Survey (1852): | Sketches and notes by George Petrie, variously dated 1852-69 (RCAHMS SAS 487 (3), DC63603, DC63616-17, DC66379) |
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1879): | Annotated Brough on the 1st edition OS 25-inch map (Orkney 1882, sheet 99.5) |
| Earthwork Survey (1879): | Plan of the entrance to the broch drawn up by Sir Henry Dryden from George Petrie's measurements (RCAHMS ORD 19/2) |
| Earthwork Survey (1928): | Plan and description of the broch (RCAHMS 1946, ii, 328, no.947, fig 423; RCAHMS ORD 19/1 & 3) |
| Other (1970): | Resurveyed at 1:2500 by the OS |
| Other (1979): | Description by Raymond Lamb |
| Other (1993): | Scheduled |
Featureless apart from the broch mound and the overlying sheepfold
None
| None | ✓ |
| Spring | ✗ |
| Stream | ✗ |
| Pool | ✗ |
| Flush | ✗ |
| Well | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
Broch mound
| 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 mound
| 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 ditch, presumably accompanying a wall cutting off a promontory
| Area 1: | 0.32ha. |
| Total: | 0.32ha. |
Total Footprint Area: Noneha.
None
| ✗ | None |
| ✗ | None |
| NE Quadrant: | 0 |
| SE Quadrant: | 0 |
| 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 | ✗ |
Traces of bank possibly visible on aerial photographs
| 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 |
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
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
Thomas, F W L (1852) 'An account of some Celtic antiquities of Orkney, including the stones of Stenness, tumuli, Picts houses &c., with plans'. Archaeologia 34 (1852), 88-136
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