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MHG9778 - Settlement - Kintradwell Broch

Summary

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Type and Period (1)

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Full Description

NC90NW 4 9194 0757.

(NC 9194 0757) Galleried Structure (NR)
OS 6"map, (1964)

On top of W bank of the Kintradwell Burn is a large dry-stone construction which was excavated c1870. It comprises a main passage which enters from the top of the bank from NE where it is 2ft 2ins wide. At 12ft along the passage (now widened to 3ft 6ins) an opening to the right gives access to a chamber 22ft by some 15ft and opposite is another passage leading to other chambers now indiscernible. A door jamb occurs in main passage 18 ft along its length, beyond which it wident to 4ft 9ins. Further along are two entries opposite each other to the NW and SE, the former gives access to a chamber 12ft 6ins long, the latter to a passage 6ft 6ins long which contains a door check. The main passage seems to terminate in a small chamber 7ft in length. On the SW side of the large chamber is a recess formed by three large upright slabs. The highest walling in whole structure is 3ft 10ins.
Lying in the interior is a stone 1ft across at the top with a depression 3 1/2ins in diameter and 2" deep; it may have been a stone pivot for a door. When excavated, finds included food debris, flattened antlers, charcoal, bones and fragments of manufactured shale.
J M Joass 1871; RCAHMS 1911, visited 1909.

Surveyed at 1:2500. Visited by OS (W D J) 4 April 1962.

The remains of this dry stone construction are as described by RCAHMS and planned by OS field investigator in 1962.
They occupy a narrow area of uncultivated ground between the steep gorge of the Kintradwell Burn in NE and the wall of pasture field to SW. There is no trace of the structure in the pasture field which is significantly 1.0m lower than the uncultivated land. The excavations are incomplete as there is undoubtedly a further chamber to SE of the complex, of which only the NW arc of walling is exposed (the existence of a door check in the side passage described by RCAHMS tends to verify this).
The remains and finds indicate some form of nucleated domestic site of uncertain period. However, it bears a strong resemblance to the secondary domestic structures found in association with brochs in the area (See NC90NW 5, NC80SE 4) in its plan form and method of construction, ie. the combination of dry-stone walling and large upright slabs.
The supposed stone pivot and finds cannot be located.
Revised at 1/2500. Visited by OS (J B) 16 January 1962.

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 HES Canmore record for Kintradwell Broch (MHG9777) which includes the chapter on this site. <1> <2>

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Map

Location

Grid reference	Centred NC 9193 0757 (70m by 70m) (2 map features)
Map sheet	NC90NW
Geographical Area	SUTHERLAND
Civil Parish	LOTH

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