Broch from Burrian
The Broch of Burrian (also known as Knowe Of Burrian), which was excavated in 1870/71, is located on a headland in the southeast of the Scottish Orkney island of North Ronaldsay and is the northernmost excavated brochure of the Orkney. It shows several phases of use. The wall of the broch made of dry stone around the inner courtyard is 9.6 m in diameter and five meters thick. In the courtyard is a well found in various brochures. The entrance without a guard cell but with a hinged door is in the southeast. A single wall cell with lateral access is located in the wall on the northeast side. A special feature of the construction is the 1.3 m high opening, 0.9 m above the rock or the original ground.
The remains of four ramparts lie on the land side. In the second phase, the brochure was converted into a wheelhouse with radial niches. The supports on the outer surface in the northwest can belong to the Iron Age as well as small building remains on the north side. The outer surface of the wall is covered on the east and south-east side by a later wall and an almost three-meter-high pile of rubbish. Courtenay Arthur Ralegh Radford (1900–1999) believes to have found evidence of the existence of a Celtic monastery or a hermitage through an incised early Greek cross (Burrian Cross), which was modified in the Irish style, next to an Oghamin script . He compares an ox bone with Pictish symbols (crescent moon and V-rod) and a pebble with Celtic patterns with finds from St Ninian's cave in Whithorn. A bell from the 5th to 9th centuries and three bone cubes were also found.
Painted pebbles were first found here in 1871 .
See also
literature
- Ian Armit: Towers in the North. The Brochs of Scotland. Tempus, Stroud 2003, ISBN 0-7524-1932-3 , pp. 18-19.
- A. Heald: Broch of Burrian, North Ronaldsay. (Cross & Burness parish). Iron age comb; stone spindle whorl. In: Discovery and Excavation in Scotland. New Series Vol. 6, 2005, ISSN 0419-411X , p. 97.
- JNG Ritchie: Brochs of Scotland . Princes Risborough, Shire Archeology secund edition 1998, ISBN 0-7478-0389-7 pp. 43, 49
Web links
- Basic plan
- Entry on Burrian's Broch in Canmore, Historic Environment Scotland's database
- Images of finds
Coordinates: 59 ° 20 '53 " N , 2 ° 25' 8.1" W.