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MHG10698 - Broch, Eilean Garbh, Skail

Summary

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Type and Period (1)

Protected Status

Full Description

(NC 7201 4732) Broch (NR) OS 6" map, (1962)

The site is now protected as a Scheduled Monument of National Importance under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act (1979) February 7th 2005
DEH(23/01/06)

The remains of a broch with outworks, discovered on edge of a rocky escarpment during fieldwork. The broch consists of footings of a wall about 4.2m broad and now of negligible height, enclosing an area some 8.3m in diameter, and having an entrance in SE. The defences consist of a double rampart and ditch springing from the rock edge behind broch on W and running through N,E & S, with a break opposite entrance on SE. A secondary enclosure 21m by 6m of boulder construction has been built within inner ditch on NE. This ditch is 8.5m wide and 3m deep and the outer ditch is 6m wide and 1.2m deep.
Visited by OS (J L D) 6 May 1960;
Visible on RAF air photograph 106G/Scot/UK/76: 4025-6.

The fragmentary remains of broch with outworks are as described by previous field investigator. It measures 15.2-15.7m overall diameter; base blocks of the outer face are visible intermittently through the tumble, but inner face cannot be identified with certainty. At easiest means of approach from S, outworks comprise a double rampart with outer ditches, but this fades in steepening W and E slopes to two outward-facing scarps. The discontinuous footings of an outer retaining wall occur in face of inner rampart at both sides of the entrance, and an arc of crude walling, about 4.2m long, against inner face of same rampart immediately west of the entrance may be the remains of a domestic structure. The later stone-walled enclosure built into the ditch partially overlays the entrance causeway through the outworks at its south end.
Revised at 1:10,000. Visited by OS (N K B) 18 December 1978.

NC74 1 EILEAN GARBH (‘Skail’)
NC/7201 4732
This probable broch with outworks in Farr, Sutherland, was discovered in 1960 by the investigators of the one-time Archaeology Division of the Ordnance Survey. The name used here was suggested by Swanson [2]. The remains consist of the footings of a wall about 4.2m thick, now of negligible height, enclosing an area some 8.3min diameter and with an entrance in the south-east. The inner face cannot be identified with certainty but the overall diameter of the building may be about 15.7m [2].
The outer defences consist of a double rampart and ditch springing from the rock edge behind the broch on the west and running through north, east and south with a break opposite the entrance on the south-east. The inner ditch is 8.5m wide and 3m deep, and the outer one is 6m wide and 1.2m deep. Swanson gives more details of these outworks and provides an excellent plan [2].
Sources: 1. NMRS site no. NC 74 NW 3: 2. Swanson (ms) 1985, 734-36 and plan. <1>

The site is included in the Atlas of Hillforts of Britain and Ireland online database. See link below for site entry. <2>

Sources/Archives (2)

Map

Location

Grid reference	Centred NC 7200 4731 (70m by 70m) (2 map features)
Map sheet	NC74NW
Geographical Area	SUTHERLAND
Civil Parish	FARR

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