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MHG10822 - Broch, Carrol

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Type and Period (1)

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Full Description

NC80NW 1 8462 0646.
Broch (NR) OS 6"map, (1969)

Carrol, NC80NW0001

Brochs are round, tower-like houses, their monumental size intended to display the wealth and status of the agricultural communities who lived in them. They were occupied in the later Iron Age and occur frequently in N and W of Scotland. (41)
Carroll was excavated in the late nineteenth century and is exceptionally well-preserved. The walls still stand to 3m high and the nature of their double skinned construction can be clearly seen. Steps rise to a passage within the walls at first floor level and part of the passage itself can be seen. (52)
A long passage way leads through the outer defences to the entrance to the broch. This, too, is very elaborate and is still completely roofed. Finds from the Carroll broch include a stone cup with a handle, a ring made of shale, and a plate formed out of an ox horn. (51)
(Internal diameter 9.4m; External diameter 13.6m; Height 3m)
Armit, I., 1997. Celtic Scotland. Edinburgh: Batsford.
Gourlay, R., 1996. Sutherland. An Archaeological Guide.
RCAHMS. 1911. Sutherland. Edinburgh: HMSO.
Information from SCRAN Project, March, 2000

The Broch of Carrol, measuring between 30ft 6ins and 31ft internal diameter and surviving to an average height of 10ft, has been excavated. The entrance in the ESE with two door checks and a guard chamber is still roofed, at this point the wall is 14ft thick. In the SW arc is an entrance to a ground floor chamber and to steps rising to first floor level. A first floor gallery is discernible in NE arc.
The broch is surrounded by an outer wall 7-8 ft thick, with a ditch or trench outside it about 20ft wide. The entrance through this outer defence is in line with that of the broch, and a walled passage 5ft wide connects the two.
Finds from the excavation, now in Dunrobin Museum, include a steatite cup with side handle, a rude shale ring and a concave oval plate of ox horn with four rivet holes at one end and two iron rivets in situ.
J M Joass 1873; RCAHMS 1911, visited 1909.

A broch generally as described by RCAHMS (1911), the outer face being obscured by debris from the cleared interior. The existence of a walled passage between the entrances of the broch and outer defences is uncertain due to debris. The occasional earthfast stone protruding through the turf between broch and outer wall indicates secondary structures.
Revised at 1/10,000.
Visited by OS (W D J) 24 April 1964 and (N K B) 3 November 1975.

The Acc. Nos of the finds from the broch, in Dunrobin Museum, are: 1868.51-4; sherd 1890.1; pebble tool 1891.3.
Information contained in TS of Catalogue of Dunrobin Museum by A S Henshall.

This site was included in Mackie's 2007 'The Roundhouses, Brochs and Wheelhouses of Atlantic Scotland c.700 BC - AD 500: Architecture and material culture'. See link below to HES Canmore record which includes the chapter on this site. <1>

The finds from the broch were catalogued during an inventory of Dunrobin Castle Museum's collection in 2019 by ARCH. They comprised a penannular bronze ring (1868.51), several pottery sherds (1968.52), a stone cup or lamp (1868.53), a spindle whorl (1868.54) and a grinding stone (1891.3). They are on display in case 23, shelf C and case 22 shelf C. The oxhorn plate was not located. <2>

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Map

Location

Grid reference	Centred NC 8462 0646 (70m by 70m) (2 map features)
Map sheet	NC80NW
Geographical Area	SUTHERLAND
Civil Parish	CLYNE

Finds (7)

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